#i agree with him about alex's stage presence <3

[mrschwartz]

Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC about Arctic Monkeys

#arctic monkeys #alex turner #fontaines dc #grian chatten #i agree with him about alex's stage presence <3

[ladlebugg]

My Top 10 SVU Main Characters - Ranked Least to Most Favorite ⭐️ with Explanations 📝

#10 Donald Cragen

This list starts with Cragen, because he was so much more memorable than (I feel) people give him credit for. He was the rock of the team. The Captain for over a dozen seasons. And the longer he was on, the older he got, the more we got to see a deeper side of his character. The side of him that was sad and lonely - the side that needed companionship. He was the image of a well decorated cop who slowly paved his way toward retirement. And when he was the head, he did a damn good job of it. Cragen gets an A+ from me!!

#9 George Huang

Dr. Huang is an openly gay, F.B.I. Criminal Psychiatrist who entered the show in... poor taste... if we’re being honest. I’m not sure how many people remember “Pique” in season 2, but that facial hair and vaguely racist Asian accent was not working. Thankfully! His next appearance was way less on the nose and far more palpable! He had a unique role on the team, one that is sorely missed in his absence. Who doesn’t love getting in the heads of sociopaths and hearing it explained in medical jargon that mostly just sounds cool? We love you Huang!!

#8 Alexandra Cabot

Alexandra Cabot was everything the show needed in a strong, independent, intelligent, openly opinionated female ADA!! *Deep breath* She was a prize to watch in the courtroom, and the way her story progresses in the show (even after she leaves the main cast) is so compelling that she couldn’t be left off this list. You go girl!!

#7 Amanda Rollins

Rollins is a complicated country girl from Loganville, GA, with a thick accent to boot. Her headstrong ways are both a headache and an undeniable charm. As the show revealed more of her past, home life, the viewers get to understand exactly who she is as a person. The demons she battles with are not ideal, but they’re relatable. Even so, she seems to overcome them! Most notably, her choice in men, her gambling problem and (very briefly in one episode) her cynical view of prostitution; it gave her layers. We love layers! It made her real! Not too many characters accomplished a balance of good and bad so gracefully, while still making us love her!!

#6 John Munch

Who in their right mind didn’t love Munch? He is a character that moved over from Homicide: Life on the Street to grace us with his presence on SVU for 14 full seasons. He was magnetic! His snark was nearly incomparable. His blasé attitude was so oddly comforting in the midst of more serious cases that I was almost looking forward to it. He was self deprecating, but not depressing. He was honest, but not cruel. He was a real gem within the cast. Way to go Munch!!

#5 Elliot Stabler

This wouldn’t be a Top 10 SVU Character list without Stabler. He’s charming. He’s handsome. He’s angry! His energy was erratic, but wholesome. Christopher Meloni did a beautiful job with this character. He had a family life that was intriguing and felt real. His relationship with Olivia (though uncomfortably tense from time to time) really felt like what I - someone with no real understanding of real life policework - could believe to be the unhealthy, but irreplaceable bond you can have with a partner you’ve worked with for over a decade. Go Stabler!!

#4 Odafin Tutuola

Hell yeah, Fin is in the Top 4. Ice T. went from being set to play in four episodes to being the second longest standing cast member! His easy going, grandfather attitude is humbling to see in a police procedural drama. He’s morally sound and has no real issues with anyone in the squad (aside from his small spat with Detective Chester Lake, but that only lasted for a small segment of one episode. He’s really not a fire starter). His fun inserts and urban background are refreshing. And - as much as I might inwardly gripe about the lack of Black SVU characters - Fin definitely holds his own; representing a Black cop from a bad neighborhood with a background similar to many who came from the streets. We love it!

#3 Olivia Benson

This is somewhat obvious, but hell, why even watch SVU if you don’t love the longest standing cast member? Olivia had many character stages and moments of growth throughout the show. We really got to see her evolve from the detective she started out as in the 1999 premiere. She’s become a sensitive, cunning, efficient member of the SVU squad, and not just by moving up the ranks! She was a leader from the start, and I believe the show runners knew this. Not to mention, Mariska Hargitay is a national treasure, and don’t you forget it!!

#2 Rafael Barba

This ADA came on the show with a BANG! His first case was incredibly memorable. This fast-talking, hyper-intelligent Cuban character is a treat to the SVU series. He’s funny, snarky, and doesn’t pull his punches. He’s a great mixture of what Alex Cabot and Casey Novak portrayed in their respective roles. He came in to make a name for himself, and he absolutely solidified his place on this measly SVU Hall of Fame! Go Barba!!

#1 Dominick “Sonny” Carisi

The main reason Carisi is topping off this list is because I want to sit on his face (minus the porn stache). But aside from being so easy on the eyes that it’s tiring, Carisi had an immediate charisma and definable energy when he entered the show. He came in like a yankee New Yorker, handing out Italian food with his nonsense accent, and I loved it! Because he was a CHARACTER. Peter Scanavino really created something here and I live for it. Not to mention he (SPOILER ALERT) becomes an incredible Junior ADA!! We live for Carisi!! 🏆

That’s all!! Did you agree or disagree??

#special victims unit #top 10 list #top 10 #opinion #cast #characters #svu #olivia benson #sonny carisi #rafael barba #elliot stabler #best character #top list #entertainment #column #article #blog #television #tv shows #nbc svu #law and order #law and order special victims unit #thoughts

[aigoofanfiction]

All's Fair in Love (3/?)

Han Ji-pyeong x Female Reader

Summary: Park Dong-cheon asks your help to deliver a bit of bad news to his boss and unwittingly sets the stage for an office romance.

Word count: 1.4k

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Ji-pyeong doesn’t allow himself to get flustered by your presence even if he was just looking at your message seconds earlier. As Director Yoon takes the chair at the end of the conference table, he pulls out the chair next to him for you.

At the same exact moment, Alex also pulls out the chair next to him. Ji-pyeong frowns. You always sit next to him during the meetings you have together. Clearing his throat, Ji-pyeong deliberately pats the back of the chair before looking at you meaningfully. Before you can do anything, however, Dong-cheon excitedly scurries around the table and takes the seat Ji-pyeong has reserved for you.

Ji-pyeong can only gape at his assistant in surprise. Beside you, Alex sits back and smirks at him.

Alex: 1, Ji-pyeong: 0

“Mr. Han, you might be wondering why we’re having this meeting all of a sudden,” Director Yoon begins.

Ji-pyeong turns to look at the director and nods. “Seeing that Alex is here, I assume that what we’re about to discuss has something to do with Sandbox.”

He clasps his hands together on the table. “Based on the success we’ve had with this program last year as well as some of the meetings we’ve had with our foreign clients recently, my guess is that you’re thinking of expanding Sandbox with a foreign partner, specifically, with 2STO.”

He then glances in your direction. “But of course, before we launch anything big, you want us to test the waters with smaller initiatives first with the help of marketing and PR.”

“You’re correct,” Director Yoon agrees with a big smile.

“Wow,” Alex remarks, the astonishment clear in his voice. “How did you predict that?”

“I didn’t predict it,” Ji-pyeong answers. “But it’s my job to always think of the future. Even if Director Yoon didn’t bring it up today, SH Ventures would have gone down that route eventually.”

“Exactly,” Director Yoon says. “Now, I know you’re very busy Mr. Han, so I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I only want to let you know that Dong-cheon and our lovely PR marvel here would be helming this project. They’ll be working very closely with Alex and will keep both of us updated regularly.”

Ji-pyeong’s next words should have been to agree with Director Yoon. He's already kept busy with his increasingly frequent meetings with Director Yoon and the board, so it's important to delegate such tasks to Dong-cheon, but he finds himself saying something else entirely.

“I’d like to help as well,” he says.

“Eh?” Both you and Dong-cheon react at the same time.

"Why do you sound so shocked?" he asks.

“But you have so much on your plate already, Mr. Han,” you say.

“Didn’t you say you were hardly getting enough sleep with that pharmaceutical deal and that—owwww!” Dong-cheon suddenly yelps.

"Did you hit your foot again, Dong-cheon?" Ji-pyeong chastises. "Anyway, I can still help. I have plenty of experience working with our clients overseas."

“Perfect,” Director Yoon says, sounding pleased. “Since we’re all already here, perhaps we can begin by discussing initial ideas...”

+++

The first mini project that everyone agreed upon was a video essay competition. In two minutes or less, participants must explain why they want to win a Sandbox-sponsored trip to a conference that 2STO was already scheduled to hold in America in three months. These kinds of competitions are generally good for publicity, but this particular contest is more than that. Ji-pyeong recalls how you explained your idea during that first meeting.

“Right now, we don’t know what value our target market might see in a partnership between 2STO and SH Ventures. Should we lean towards mentorship or investment? Perhaps a little bit of both?" You took a deep breath before continuing. “We have so many ideas, but we don't know which one to pick, so why don’t we kick this alliance off by gathering data first?"

You then went on to explain that with hundreds of people expected to send their entries, you’d have more than enough data to figure out how to best utilize the partnership in the future. “With the insights we’ll get from their submissions, we’ll know which of our other plans we should lean towards first,” you said. "It's not a guarantee of success, but at least, we'll be making more informed decisions."

Ji-pyeong has always been impressed with your ideas, but this one is definitely one of his favorites to date. For starters, it won’t be too costly to set up, and one can never have enough good publicity. But what he likes the most about it is that it’s forward-thinking. You're thinking about the partnership's future, not just an idea's immediate impact. He knows that most of the work will come after the contest, when you and your team spend weeks poring over the videos and creating profiles, but he also knows that it’s nothing you can’t handle.

As much as Ji-pyeong hates to admit it, partnering with 2STO is a great way to expand Sandbox’s reach outside South Korea and further establish SH Ventures’ reputation overseas. He just doesn’t like the idea of having to work too closely with Alex. Or more specifically, he doesn’t like the idea of you working with the other man more than you do with him.

Call him petty, but for the past few weeks, he’s been trying to limit your interactions with Alex. Last week, the latter tried to skip out on rehearsals with the CEOs, but Ji-pyeong very helpfully reminded him about it.

“Oh you mustn’t sacrifice your time for this meeting, Mr. Kwon,” you said. “It’s not a big deal, and I’m sure Dong-cheon can fill you in later.”

“My team can handle rehearsal on their own,” Alex tried to counter.

“You’re probably right,” you said. “But I’m also certain that they would appreciate your support.”

Alex couldn’t say anything to that, of course, and he had to leave you to Ji-pyeong and Dong-cheon.

Alex: 1, Ji-pyeong: 1

Not that Alex was above it either, what with his own childish tactics to annoy him.

“Mr. Kwon, as you can see—” you began during one meeting.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Alex?” he asked. “We really don’t stand on ceremony back in the States.”

“Oh, uh... I’m not really—”

“Try it once,” Alex encouraged you.

When you actually said his name, Alex flashed you a smile. Only when you weren’t looking did the man grin at Ji-pyeong.

Alex: 2, Ji-pyeong 1

Ji-pyeong acknowledges that he should put a stop to this stupid rivalry with Alex before it gets out of hand. It hasn’t reached a point where it affects work yet, nor would Ji-pyeong ever allow it to escalate, but he also knows how competitive he can get, especially when it’s with people whom he just knows grew up privileged.

As if on cue, he spots Alex in Sandbox’s lobby. Ji-pyeong is about to turn the other way, intent on avoiding him, when he sees you approach Alex with a smile on your face.

A strange feeling surges inside him, and once again, Dong-cheon’s comment about you pops into his head. He shakes his head. It really can’t be Alex, can it? Sure, the man is not ugly, but it’s too... predictable. He should really ask Dong-cheon about it.

“What are you looking at, Mr. Han?”

Ji-pyeong jumps at the voice beside him. He holds a hand to his chest when he sees who it is. “Aigoo, Dong-cheon, you scared me.”

Dong-cheon adjusts his glasses. “I’ve actually been calling your name for a while now, but you seemed distracted.”

Following Ji-pyeong’s line of sight, Dong-cheon sees you and Alex talking. “Oh, they look good together, don’t they?”

Ji-pyeong whips his head so quickly he might have pulled a muscle. “What are you talking about?”

Dong-cheon shrugs. “I mean, objectively, they look quite striking. She’s pretty. He’s handsome. And now, fate has them working together on a project that will undoubtedly bring them closer.”

“You've been watching too many dramas,” Ji-pyeong mutters.

Dong-cheon turns to look at him with an incredulous expression on his face. “What do you mean?”

“They don’t have chemistry,” Ji-pyeong says. “And c’mon—Alex Kwon?”

“Your personal misgivings aside, what’s wrong with him?” Dong-cheon challenges.

Ji-pyeong gestures at Alex. “He’s too suave, too good-looking, too successful, too... Alex! Every woman here has a crush on him.”

“Exactly—every woman here,” Dong-cheon stresses. “So why wouldn’t she like him?”

“Because she’s not just anyone,” Ji-pyeong says without hesitation.

“Ah,” Dong-cheon says.

The two of them are quiet for a second.

“W-Wait. Did she say she has a crush on Alex?” Ji-pyeong asks, turning to face his assistant.

Dong-cheon grins. “Mr. Han, we should head back to the office. We don’t want to be late for our conference call!”

#han ji pyeong x reader #han ji pyeong #start up fanfiction

[jaskiers-sweetkiss]

The Mercer Legacy - Part 4

Pairings: Luke x Reggie x reader, Julie x Flynn x Carrie

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: mentions of Reggie’s parents fighting in the edits

A/N: oh man I’m so excited for this chapter. I usually share a lot of bits and pieces with the Ghost Squad while I’m writing but I’ve kept this one under wraps as a surprise! I hope you like it! As always, let me know what you think and drop a comment/send me an ask if you want to be tagged!

Part 3 Masterlist TML Masterlist

___

“Oh, by the way, Julie said her girlfriends are coming to watch practice today,” Alex said, looking up from his phone and you narrowed your eyes at him.

He tucked his drum sticks into the water bottle pocket of his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on you. 

“Girlfriends,” you repeated, drawing out the ‘s’ at the end. “As in multiple girlfriends?”

“Yeah, keep up Y/L/N,” Alex said teasingly before realizing why you had questioned it. “I told you you had no reason to be worried.” 

When you arrived you were excited to meet Julie’s significant others and also glad to not have to sit alone during practice. However, that excitement quickly turned to surprise when you stepped into the garage. 

“Carrie?”

“Oh hey Y/N,” she replied, sounding unphased but you noticed the light pink blush spreading across her cheeks. She hadn’t expected someone else she knew to be there just like you hadn’t/ “What’re you doing here?”

You tilted your head towards where Alex was settling in behind his drumset and Carrie nodded in understanding.

“I should’ve guessed,” she smiled and you were taken aback slightly at how genuine it was, used to her stage smile.

“He and I are going to have a long conversation about sharing information,” you said loud enough for Alex to hear on the other side of the studio, glaring at your best friend who just rolled his eyes in response.

“I know Reggie and Luke too.” You directed your words back to Carrie, glancing over to the two boys for the first time since you’d arrived to find them looking back at you and you tried to fight back the heat rushing to your cheeks. It didn’t seem to stop Carrie from noticing and she smirked knowingly.

“Ahh,” she hummed quietly to herself as if she’d just put something together but you had no idea what it could be.

“What?” You questioned a bit abrasively and you winced at your tone. You just didn’t like that she seemed to know something that you didn’t.

“Nothing, just— and you didn’t hear this from me— Julie said Reggie and Luke haven’t been able to shut up about a girl for weeks. I just didn’t expect it to be you.” Carrie shared in a hushed whisper and you flushed in earnest this time, your throat going dry at the information.

“Hey, Mercer are you gonna introduce me to your girl or?” The girl who you assumed was Julie’s other girlfriend called, thankfully interrupting your conversation with Carrie before you had to come up with a response. She slung her arm around your shoulder as she spoke.

Alex rolled his eyes but hollered back, “Flynn that’s Y/N, Y/N that’s Flynn.”

“I take it you’re the one nobody around here shuts up about?” Flynn asked as she stepped away from you.

“Flynn!” Carrie hissed, eyes flashing.

“What, is that supposed to be some secret?” Flynn replied and you laughed while Carrie rolled her eyes fondly.

“Apparently I am,” you shrugged with a shy chuckle.

Flynn nodded pensively, looking you up and down.

“I get it,” she said finally and you felt yourself blush for the umpteenth time since you arrived.

Carrie rolled her eyes, huffing out a quiet “oh my god.”

“Hey PeterPatter you better hurry up before I steal your girlfriend,” Flynn called to Luke and Reggie over her shoulder and you wished the ground would open up and swallow you right there. Luckily when you chanced a glance at the guys they seemed just as mortified as you, both of their faces beat red as they both pointedly avoided looking at each other or you.

“She’s not-”

“I’m not-”

The three of you blurted at the same time, your heads snapping up to stare at each other with wide eyes. Flynn cackled at that and Carrie smacked her arm, muttering something under her breath that you didn’t catch.

“Wow you guys make it too easy,” Flynn said when she finally stopped laughing, pretending to wipe tears from her eyes.

“Julie, can you please make your girlfriend stop flirting with my best friend,” Alex whined and Flynn flipped him off. “There’re already too many people here who do that,” he added, looking pointedly at Luke and Reggie and you turned to glare at him.

“Fuck you,” you mouthed but he just grinned cheekily.

“In your dreams,” he mouthed back and you stuck your tongue out at him.

“O-kay,” Julie said once she noticed Alex sticking his tongue out at you in response, interrupting the chaos that had consumed the studio. “Why don’t we start practicing.”

The boys nodded hurriedly, settling in behind their instruments while you, Carrie, and Flynn moved to make yourselves comfortable in the various chairs and couch.

“And Flynn? behave,” Julie called at her girlfriend’s back.

Flynn mumbling something petulant under her breath before plopping down on the couch next to Carrie, throwing her arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder and pulling her into her. You did your best to stifle a laugh at the reluctant way that Carrie leaned into her girlfriend, arms crossed over her chest and what may look like an annoyed expression but you could see the fondness in her eyes.

The three of you chatted amicably throughout the band’s rehearsal, you getting to know Flynn and getting to know the “real” Carrie. It was nice, they were nice and you quietly wondered why you hadn’t formed a friendship with Carrie sooner. You’d always been amicable in school, but your social circles never really overlapped so you’d never had a reason to really talk to each other. You wished you had.

Practice flew by quicker than usual in the presence of both good music and good company and before you knew it the band was packing up their instruments and Carrie and Flynn were standing to go talk to their girlfriend. Before she got too far, Carrie nudged you in the direction of the two guitarists and Flynn sent you a sly wink.

You stumbled slightly from the force of Carrie’s push but continued to meander over to the band set up, intentionally avoiding the eyes of your best friend who you were certain was smirking knowingly at you.

“Oh hey, Y/N!” Reggie said cheerfully when he glanced up from zipping up his guitar case to see you making your way over. “Luke and I were thinking maybe ice cream now that practice is done? Since you missed out the other day?”

You turned to find Luke nodding in agreement to Reggie’s statement and you smiled, heart warming at the gesture. You were certain that they’d be upset with you after you bailed on them with a shitty excuse the other day but it seemed they still wanted to spend time with you, and for that you were grateful.

“I’d love that,” you agreed, “Is Alex coming with?”

“Um, well, I was kinda hoping it could just be the three of us?” Luke spoke up, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “There’s been something I’ve been wanting to talk to you guys about…”

You nodded thoughtfully, trying to fight back the frown that threatened to take over your face as a pit of worry opened up in your stomach.

“It’s nothing bad! I swear!” Luke rushed to reassure you both as if sensing your worries.

“Okay.” You nodded again, this time more to yourself. “In that case, there’s a conversation I’ve been meaning to have with you both too.”

You weren’t sure why you’d volunteered that. Maybe you had been emboldened by Luke’s statement.

“I have something too but maybe we should wait and talk about it all over ice cream?” Reggie added hesitantly, sounding even more nervous than you felt.

You all agreed, deciding that whatever news you each needed to share with one another would be improved by the presence of ice cream. With your plans settled, Reggie and Luke finished putting away their equipment and you all said goodbye to the rest of the group before setting off.

It was a short walk from the Molina’s to Reggie’s favorite ice cream place and an even shorter trip with Reggie on his skateboard and you on Luke’s bike handles. Normally you’d spend a ride on Luke’s handlebars giggling loudly (or screaming whenever Luke would swerve suddenly in order to scare you) with Reggie skateboarding by your side. This time though you were all silent and you felt like you were buzzing with anxiety over the prospect of confessing your feelings to the two boys.

The three of you were uncharacteristically quiet as you got your ice cream, each of you paying separately rather than the usual fight over who got to pay this time. It made your gut twist, anxiety welling up once more at what Reggie and Luke had to say.

It wasn’t until you were sat around a table that anyone tried to speak up.

“Okay so-“

“Right, well-“

“I just want-“

The tree of you started at the same time before freezing abruptly. You couldn’t help the shocked laugh that bubbled out of you and you flushed at the inappropriateness of it. However, it seemed to break the tense atmosphere that had surrounded you all since you left the studio, Luke and Reggie breaking into laughter of their own.

“I’ll go first,” you volunteered, startled again when you heard the two boys speak in unison with you.

The three of you fell into short-lived laughter once more before you spoke up again, alone this time.

“Seriously, I’ll go first... if that’s alright?”

You thought back to the message you’d sent Alex weeks ago saying that you weren’t ready to have your heart broken like that. You certainly didn’t feel more ready now, but something in you needed to get this out. Heartbreak or not, at least you’d know for sure.

“Ladies first,” Luke acquiesced and you sent him a brief but grateful smile.

“Okay, um...wow this is a lot harder than I thought,” you muttered to yourself, stuttering over your words. “You guys are great guys and amazing friends but-“

“I have a crush on you!” Reggie blurted, cutting you off mid-sentence and you froze, unable to do more than blink at the boy.

“Both of you,” Reggie clarified after a moment before he began to ramble. “And I didn’t want it to change anything between us because you guys are so important to me and it’s totally okay if you don’t feel the same but...”

“But you just had to get it out there,” Luke finished, a knowing look on his face.

“Yeah, how’d you...?” Reggie trailed off, peering curiously at Luke.

“Because I have a crush on you too, you dork,” Luke confessed with a small laugh that sounded less like he thought the situation was funny and more like he was trying to hide how nervous he was. “Both of you.”

Luke and Reggie turned to look at you then, their nerves obvious in their facial expressions and suddenly the atmosphere was tense again.

“I... I-“ you tried to force out the words before cutting yourself off with a groan. “I can’t believe you guys!”

“What?”

“Here I am trying to get the words out and you- you guys cut me off and... and beat me to it! It’s- it’s not fair!”

“You... what?” Luke asked the question again, this time less out of confusion and more disbelief.

“I have a crush on you— both of you— too and I was trying to tell you but,” you gestured wildly about you as if to reference what had just happened. “I guess it doesn’t matter, huh?”

You were grinning by then, completely unbelieving of your luck. You felt breathless with it, the rush of the adrenaline from your confession combined with the euphoria of Luke and Reggie’s reciprocation was enough to make your head spin.

“So, what now?” Reggie asked, looking surprised that you’d made it to this point. You couldn’t blame him, you felt the same way.

“I vote we eat our ice cream before it’s entirely melted and call this our first date.”

You grinned as you watched Reggie and Luke blush but nod eagerly. You couldn’t help it that your cheeky grin slipped into something much sappier and fond as you watched the boys, your boys.

___

JATP Taglist: @meangirlsx @morganayenneferburnham @n0wornever @bright-molina @reg-peters @calamitykaty @sunsetcurvecuddles @dream-a-little-bigger-x @bright-patterson

TML Taglist: @marinettepotterandplagg @everyonesannoyedwithme @percico-heronstairs @starjane312 @ifilwtmfc @jatphatones @cherrymaybank @sorrowfulfragmentation @stargazing-dreamer-girl @daisybutterlions @mynameisntluke @willex-owns-my-heart @theolivekiddo @90ssunsetcurve @avngrsinitiative @thatfandombitcch

#jatp #jatp fic #Julie and the phantoms #Julie and the phantoms fic #social media au #Alex mercer #Reggie peters #Luke patterson #Julie molina #Flynn jatp #flynn nolastname #Carrie wilson #peterpatter #peterpatter x reader #Luke x Reggie x reader #triple threat #Julie x Flynn x Carrie

[chalkrevelations]

Huh.

Well, this is not the next episode reaction you were expecting, but a while back, in the middle of the night, while I was ready to cry from working on a pharmacology paper, out of nowhere, Youtube threw up Street Dance of China S3 Ep1 at me. And yeah. I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show. (There are enough SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal that I feel there’s no point denying this.)

So – no, actually, wait. FIRST of all, I do NOT believe the “towel vote” we ended up being given for the opening routines from the four captains. That was the most blatant bit of bullshit chicanery I’ve seen in my LIFE, and I say this as a person with a ton of SYTYCD episode reax on my old Livejournal, and I also say this not because Wang Yibo ended up last (well, not entirely), but because I saw Wallace Chung’s routine. As someone closer in age to him than to the other three captains, I have to give him props for trying, but come on, man. The critique that Yibo got from random contestants – if the subtitles are to be believed, so I realize this needs a grain of salt - basically boiled down to “it was too good for the stage lighting.” :hands: Also, I saw your face at the reveal, Wallace, and you were as shocked as I was. No way you got more towels/votes than Wang Yibo. Not unless there’s some super wild undercurrent of nostalgia propping you up, which, I guess could happen, because literally all I know about pop culture in China, current or otherwise, is filtered through Tumblr and Youtube, both notoriously suspect, but … anyway. There’s got to be a TON of behind-the-scenes manipulation going on for Yibo to be rock-bottom with last pick of teams but then also to end up with THAT pool of possibles. Are you kidding me with this?

ANYWAY, what I wanted to say is that I actually really like Wang Yibo here, and it’s not just because he’s the only captain I have even a sliver of familiarity with, and it’s not just because Lan Wangji was banging Wei Wuxian. I do realize all of this is influenced by whatever edit they’ve decided to give a particular captain or contestant, but I’m impressed with the way Yibo immediately starts team building by getting his group into a warmup, getting them dancing together, getting them dancing with him before they have to worry about dancing for him. (I mean, come on, Jackson Wang. The way to get people to stop being nervous is not to say “Stop being nervous! It will make you fuck up!”) The way Yibo immediately recognized and responded to his group’s concerns about that one dude copying someone else’s routine probably also bought him a lot of return investment. He’s dressed to work it, in his sweats and his flannel (what IS that fake-leather TAC vest and random leg holster-looking thing, Jackson Wang?). He’s convincing me he really loves to dance, he can’t hold still while he watches the contestants, he’s wandering over into other captains’ turf when it sounds like there’s a dancer performing who he might like to see, he’s being the best Yibo he can be, and I’m grooving along, wind in my hair, totally down for this ride. He’s also adorable at the beginning when all the other captains are like, my goal for this season is to slaughter the competition and dance on their graves! And he’s like, well, I’d like to … make some friends? And learn some new stuff? I don’t know if the perpetual Humble Student schtick is natural or persona, or whether it’s general or specific to dancing, but it’s working for you, my dude. This is also made better (read: ironic), by the fact that it’s immediately before the towel reveal, when he flips over to utter disbelief and gets all sulky for a while over the “fact” that his dance routine got the least votes.

Also, OH WAIT. This is where that clip of Yibo dancing with his crew ALL OVER HIM came from that I saw floating around a few months ago, isn’t it? You’re telling me those guys had never danced together before and had like, three minutes to throw together that routine? I’m even more impressed than before. Meanwhile, the towels symbolize courage and challenge, Mr. Emcee? OK, fine, cheesy reality show blah blah whatever. Can we get to the dancing now?

I’m going to put the rest of this behind a cut, because it got super long, because it turns out, when you watch in 5-minute increments, it takes two and a half weeks to get through a single episode, but you actually can see and have opinions on all 5,328 contestants, plus every single one of the captains’ battles. Meanwhile, I’m trying to convince myself this is not going to be another series of episode reactions, but 1) I do have the benefit of not having a ton of hometown media giving me a next-day play-by-play, so even though this is six months old, everything’s a surprise; 2) I am, admittedly, f’kn weak for a dance show; and 3) it’s easy to watch in 5-minute increments between researching drug interactions in hypothetical hypertensive patients with stable ischemic heart disease, erectile dysfunction, and seasonal allergies. So, I guess we’ll see. It’ll be slow going, though, because I don’t ever have two and half hours to sit down and watch an ep cover-to-cover – if it happens, it will likely keep happening in 5-minute increments. Meanwhile, there is a metric shit-ton of nattering below the cut, so caveat lector. No, seriously, I kept adding to this little by little until it became a monster. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

OK, I am generally out of my depth here, as this is not at all my area of dance not-really-expertise, but some reactions:

Team Wang Yibo: I can see why he didn’t want to choose between Colin and Dian Men – Colin might have been a touch better technically and a better showman, but Dian Men didn’t seem to have a single wasted move – but, also, my dude. Yibo. You maybe should look a little bit less stunned and overwhelmed by the mere presence of Colin, it’s giving me ideas about your taste in men. Continuing with the powerhouses, I probably shouldn’t even attempt to critique Klash, but I did feel like he was a bit stiff in some of his footwork; that final V kick, though, shit, that’s what having that kind of upper-body strength is for. Bouboo … I mean, excellent flexibility and control, of course, but mainly I’m just terribly amused that Yibo got last pick of teams but somehow ended up with the guy who’s literal world champion, and who’s just as useful for getting into the other captains’ heads – without even trying – as he is for his talent. And then there’s a montage of Yibo giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you cannot keep up this pace. There are still too many dancers to see, and you don’t have that many towels. AAANNNND Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Jackson Wang: I do like Gai Gai, although that may be influenced by the fact she’s working in the twilight area between hip-hop and contemporary that I have more familiarity with - but also, I suspect she’s pretty good in her genre. I thought Xiao Jie was inconsistent and didn’t stick the landing on his initial attempt, so I have to give you that hesitation, Jackson, even though you’ve somehow ended up the villain in my inner narrative for this show, for no particular reason I can yet discern. Maybe it’s that you’re the direct competition for Yibo’s team in the towel battles. Good enough. Anyway, Xiao Jie definitely stepped up his game for the battle with Bingo, so I can kind of see why both of them got a towel, but we’re not even halfway through this, and most of y’all are giving away towels like you have an endless supply. Yang Kai is a fucking menace with fantastic musicality, and I’m just gonna say it and take the fallout - I think he gave a better performance first time out of the gate than any of Yibo’s powerhouses did. Whatever power Klash has got, whatever skill Bouboo has got, Yang Kai feels more explosive and engaging, at least in these initial showings. He’s going to be one to beat, I’d hug him too, if he was on my team and was going to help me WIN. Yibo’s probably lucky that happened during his little stroll over to check out the competition, so that he can see they’re definitely competitive and be prepared for it. Also, Jackson, I have to admit - that face you made when Chao really kicked in? That was the same face I made, because wt actual f, you have a literal secret weapon – secret because he CAME FROM NOWHERE and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS him, how is that even possible, how did he get that good – fluid, creative, controlled, incredible musicality - without anyone having any idea who he even is? And then there’s a montage of Jackson just giving out towel after towel after towel, and my dude, you need to slow down. You can’t just be like, “THEY LOVE DANCE WITH ALL OF THEIR WHOLE HEARTS!!!!1111!!!!11!” I get it, but everyone there loves dance with all of their whole hearts, and there are not enough towels to send all of them on to the next round. ANNNND, Towel Battle #1 (See Footnote 1).

Team Lay Zhang: lol at how diplomatic you’re being, Lay Zhang – your team’s fierce roar startled you, OK. At this point, I suspect you’re the street most likely to have a knife fight break out before this is all over. I do like Alex, I think he’s got a lot of interesting, super-clean details in his moves, and he’s engaging - I cannot BELIEVE you made him battle that dude whose moves were so mushy, Lay Zhang, it leaves me doubting your ability to judge this thing. At first I thought maybe you were just looking for an excuse because you wanted to see Alex freestyle, but then you actually said something about both dancers being equal, and my estimation of you plummeted, and also sadly, my sound dropped out for the actual battle, including the part where the clearly inferior dancer fell over and then accidentally POPPED ALEX ONE IN THE EYE, and I TOLD YOU SO. I do agree it’s a good idea to make dancers in the same genre do some battling, so you can kind of plan out your towels and put together a team with broad strengths, instead of giving out towels like you’re making it rain for the first 20 contestants, and then you have 1,375 more people to get through, with 3 towels left, as EVERYONE ELSE seems to be doing, so it’s nice that at least one of you guys is thinking – if not actually acting - strategically. That was clearly not even a contest, though, GIVE ALEX HIS TOWEL and send him to the next round. Xiao Bao is hilarious, with his concern that his team captain, who’s into krump, which is “beating,” isn’t going to appreciate his waacking, which is “slapping.” I also don’t know a whole lot about waacking, so thanks for the primer, Xiao Bao, and don’t worry, your performance is just as engaging for those of us who don’t know what we’re watching as you are generally. You deserve that towel for your ability to interact with and engage your audience, alone. Lingo is a good solid performance, although he’s got his team captain strategizing edited over some of it, and here’s the thing: we are 1:56:00 into this, at this point, with another half hour to go, and all of you are starting to disappear into the sea of dancers who are very good at what you do, but at generally the same level? Anyway, Lingo, I approve of your ability to interact with your audience (read: your captain) to ensure engagement, too, so keep that up. Annnd, we actually haven’t seen that much of you guys, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

Team Wallace Chung: I’m glad Su Lian Ya insisted on performing, I thought she started off slow but warmed up, and that ending was creepily fantastic and had me spontaneously grinning at the screen in delight. Then we lose sight of this group for a really long time, actually. We go back to find Wallace putting through a couple of urban dancers who we barely see, but who apparently claim to have some choreography experience, and he really likes that. TI shows up, and they’re solid, but honestly, not as good in this performance as they were in some of the stock footage the show threw up to introduce them, but Wallace remains super-excited about the idea of choreography and sends at least choreographer Zhang Jiang Peng through to the next round. And then, we really haven’t seen that much of you guys, either, which maybe doesn’t bode well, but it’s time for Towel Battle #2 (See Footnote 2).

FOOTNOTE 1, aka TOWEL BATTLE ONE, Team Yibo vs. Team Jackson, 3V3 freestyle: First of all, I have to say, I love Yibo - Mr. I Just Wanna Make Some Friends And Have Some Fun - being all, “I have three crappy white towels I’m stuck with for coming in last place that I can’t use to send dancers to the next round and that I DO NOT DESERVE, and I am getting BACK the colorful towels that ARE RIGHTFULLY MINE. I am coming for whoever is in my way.” Team Yibo is Bouboo, Klash, Dian Men, and OK, given what we’ve seen so far, that’s the safe choice, but honestly, I think we’re just taking some things for granted right now, and I’m not sure they actually have given the best performances so far. Yeah, I said it. Team Jackson is Yang Kai, Chao, and Xiao Jie, and … ok, on that last one, I think you probably could have substituted Bingo, but all right. Yang Kai is a definite yes. Chao will be great if he can stay out of his own head and not psych himself out, but given what we’ve seen so far, he’s an obvious pick. First round, Yang Kai vs. Klash, and Yang Kai is still a fucking menace, with super lines. Klash definitely stepped up his game for the battle, and I can’t get over the upper body strength he’s got, to get that kind of airy bounce in his moves, but to be honest, I can’t even be mad the first round went to Yang Kai and Team Jackson. Second round, Yang Kai is still … y’all, the beautiful lines from this guy in his poses, I can’t get over them, but I think he doesn’t have the stamina, his footwork is getting sloppy. Bouboo also steps up his game for an actual battle, his fluidity and control is amazing, and yeah, round to Team Yibo. Round three, Xiao Jie gives it a decent effort, but the polish isn’t there; meanwhile Bouboo is still in champion mode, and I was kind of surprised this was a split vote and went to another round. Xiao Jie absolutely surprised me, coming back stronger on his second try, although I suppose a more familiar genre helped, but Bouboo continues in champion mode. Round four, Chao looks like he’s going to throw up right before he steps out there, and then as soon as the music starts, it’s like, he doesn’t even think. The music just moves him. I feel like his dance vocabulary is more limited than Bouboo’s, though, and Bouboo’s flow is amazing at this point, so I feel like the judges just want to drag this out and see more dancing when we go to one more round. Strong effort all around, but yeah, round four and two towels to Team Yibo. I can’t really complain about that. I do feel like Yibo’s powerhouses have been holding back until now, though, and I’m not sure how I feel about THAT.

FOOTNOTE 2, aka TOWEL BATTLE TWO, Team Zhang vs. Team Wallace, 3V3 w/ captain: lol, Team Zhang really wants someone to pick the Sailor Moon song because they know Xiao Bao and his waacking will tear it up. Anyway, Team Zhang includes Lingo and Xiao Bao, who does not get his Sailor Moon song and continues to be hilarious in his disbelief about being chosen to participate in this battle, when he’s not looking almost as sick as Chao from Team Jackson before HIS performance. Team Wallace includes Su Lian Ya – and honestly, despite how I’m getting ready to bag on him for the entire rest of this battle recap, I like that Wallace put one of his female dancers up there for the battle - and some dude named Ba that they haven’t given us any footage of, up ‘til now, at least that I can remember and who I … don’t even know has been formally given a towel and sent on to the next round, yet? Oh wait, he must have, because there’s talk in the pause for choreography about somehow using the towels during the battle. Wallace relies on Su Lian Ya and Zhang Jiang Peng to choose Ba, and then Ba ends up choreographing a lot of the performance, at least from the edit we see. I continue to feel you may be in over your head, Wallace. This feeling … is not assuaged by your performance in the first round, which is fine, but not really up to the level of almost anyone whose name I’ve bolded so far in this entire recap. Also, using the towels was a cute idea, but it doesn’t translate well, and Team Wallace has a lot of wasted time throwing the towels around instead of actually. You know. Dancing. Lingo gets a credible solo during Team Zhang’s performance, and even though Xiao Bao is clearly lost during a good bit of his backup dancer duties, he manages not to throw up, which – given this team’s general skill level – should be enough to give them the first round, EXCEPT SOMEHOW Team Wallace gets the point from the judges, who then try to justify this inexplicable decision by saying Team Wallace had better interaction, I guess because of the hot mess with throwing the towels around, but adding that Team Zhang was more scattered, which what? More scattered than the hot mess with the towels? I’m not buying this. I can’t tell if they’re propping up Wallace or fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, but I’m having bad acid flashbacks to the many and varied ways dance show judges will try to gaslight you, telling you that things you just saw with your very own eyes did not actually happen when it’s right there! On camera! Visible, despite whatever edit bs you’re pulling! ANYWAY, they’re definitely managing to fuck with not only Lay Zhang’s head, but Xiao Bao’s, and Xiao Bao still doesn’t seem to have his choreography down, but they manage to pull it together enough to take the second round, which to be honest is kind of a muddled mess on everyone’s part. The only one who really stands out to me on this go’round is Su Lian Ya, but OK, Team Zhang might have had it slightly more together as a unit. And then, yeah, OK, I think they were fucking with Lay Zhang’s head, because we then find out that, holy shit, the song the show powers-that-be chose for the tie-breaking third round is that gd Sailor Moon song, and we can all see the writing on the wall. Poor Team Wallace is no match for Xiao Bao, who frankly, carries this entire round on his shoulders without breaking a sweat and barely needs any backup dancers to do it. There’s some ridiculously dramatic reveal of scoring, with the judges dragging out their decisions like this was any actual contest - I’m beginning to suspect that some of them grew up with Wallace Chung posters on their bedroom walls - but finally, round and towel to Team Zhang.

Cut to a little bit of Next Time On, and wow, the first two-and-a-half-hour episode is over, and we aren’t finished with the initial round yet. It’s gonna be Christmas before I make it halfway through this season.

#street dance of china #sdoc episode reax #should i put yibo in the tags for this? #sure #i guess #wang yibo #anyone else?

[rhys-writes-sometimes]

Music Worth Making Part 4: The Hollywood Ghost Club

Requested: sort of

Warnings: mentions of death, bad writing

Series Summery: When the reader’s life is ripped away from them, they’re distraught. But with her two best friends and three certain ghosts, maybe the afterlife isn’t so bad after all. 

Chapter Summery: The boys learn about Bobby, and drag you along to haunt him. They also drag you along to the Hollywood Ghost Club

Words: 4310

A/N: sorry this took so long, I didn’t write for a few days, and I didn’t expect this chapter to be so long. I think this is the longest fic I’ve ever wrote! please tell me if you catch any mistakes, because once again, i did not edit this. also please tell me (on anon or not!) if there is a trigger warning you want tagged. hope you enjoy! (side note: i did a little research and gentlefolk is in fact the gender neutral term for gentleman)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5 | Masterlist

______________________________________________________

“You’re…… a ghost,” Flynn said, her face morphing from confusion, to surprise, to something that looked like regret.

You nodded glumly. 

“So that’s why you weren’t in school today? Because you died?” she shook her head. “I can’t believe this. I- I need a minute.” She ran out of the garage. 

Your face fell out of the expression you didn’t realize you had been putting on for Flynn. Taking a deep breath, you sat down on the couch, not knowing what to do.

“Hey, Y/N, I-” Julie stopped when she saw you. “You okay?”

“Huh? Oh, oh yeah, I’m fine,” you lied. You could tell that Julie didn’t believe you, but she didn’t push. You were thankful. You didn’t even know what was off.

“Okay, well, I just wanted you to know that Danny’s staying in Carlos’s room now.”

“Really?” you asked, standing up. “Thank you Jules!” you went to hug the girl, but then remembered you were made of air. 

“Yeah, no problem,” Julie said, trying to make what you had accidentally created a bit less awkward. “Well, I gotta go do homework. I guess that’s one perk to being dead, you don’t have to do school anymore.” She laughed a little as she waved goodbye. 

That was true. You had a lot more freetime now. Maybe even time to sing?

Looking around to make sure no one was there, you closed your eyes and could practically hear the start of your favorite song. You started singing along, quietly at first, but soon you were belting it out at the top of your lungs and dancing all around the room, passing through the furniture that was in your way. 

The song ended, and you smiled, happy for the first time in a while. Before you could continue on to the next song, your moment of bliss was interrupted. 

“I didn’t know you could sing,” Luke said from his spot in the doorway. You jumped slightly. You had been so caught up in the music that you didn’t notice him watching you. 

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, stepping into the studio. “That was really good.”

You felt your face heating up. “Thanks,” you said quietly. It was the first time you had been complimented on your voice, never having the guts to sing anywhere outside of the school choir. 

“Do you sing much?” he asked, moving to sit on the couch. 

“Um, not really, no.” You sat next to him. “My parent’s wouldn’t let me. I only sang in the ensemble for the school choir.”

“Wow. That was amazing for someone who doesn’t sing much.” You felt yourself blush slightly. He smiled at you. 

“Hey, um, would you wanna join the band?” he asked, fidgeting with his rings. 

Your eyes widened. “Join- join Julie and the Phantoms? I, I’d be honored to, but what about Alex and Reggie?”

“What about them?”

“Well, shouldn’t they get a say in it? Julie too? I mean, it’s their band, too.”

Luke waved his hand dismissively. “I’m sure once they hear you sing, they’ll agree with me.”

You bit your lip. “Even if I did join, there’s a risk of someone recognizing me. How are you going to explain that the dead kid is singing on stage with Julie?”

“I’m not. Julie would explain that,” Luke smirked, earning a playful glare from you. “Seriously though, you could wear a disguise or something. I mean, you said you just moved here a few years ago and you’re pretty shy, so most people don’t know you, right?”

“Maybe….” You knew that someone was bound to recognize you, but decided that it was a problem for Future You to figure out. “Alright, I’ll join.”

Luke bounced up. “Yessss!” he exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. You squeaked slightly when he pulled you into a tight hug. “Sorry,” he said, loosening his grip. You smiled at him, letting him know it was fine. “Welcome to the band.”

-----

“We’re playing a school dance? Sweet!” Reggie said, looking at the poster Julie had shown you. 

“It’s not exactly the Strip,” Luke muttered, making you roll your eyes slightly.

“And you’re not exactly alive, so you should be happy we have our first gig,” Reggie retorted. 

“I wasn’t in love with the idea at first either,” Julie admitted, “but it could be a great way for us to build a following, right?”

“Yeah, we need to play wherever we can, whenever we can,” you said, nodding at Julie. 

She raised an eyebrow at you. “We?” 

You felt your heart start to speed up as you realized you had accidentally told her you joined the band. Luckily, Luke saved you from having to explain yourself. 

“Ye- yeah, we. I invited Y/N to join the band earlier. I hope that was okay,” he said, throwing an arm around your shoulders and hugging you to his side. 

Julie nodded hesitantly. “It’s fine, I just wish you had asked us first.” Reggie nodded his agreement. 

“I know, and I’m really sorry-” you started, but Julie cut you off. 

“It’s fine, Y/N, really.” She smilied at you. 

Luke smiled. “Let’s rock those kid’s faces off! And then play the clubs.”

“And then record a single that gets a billion streams?” you said hopefully.

“I don’t know what that is, but hopefully it gets us a manager and a tour,” Luke said with a smirk.

“And then we release a bunch of hit albums!” Julie said excitedly. 

“Put out a country album that does surprisingly well.” You all stared at Reggie. “I shred on the banjo,” he shrugged. 

“Then I’ll learn how to fiddle,” Julie said, fist bumping him. 

“And before you know it, we’re being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame!”

“But one of us isn’t there,” you said somewhat ominously. “Because we had a blow-out in 2032.”

“My money’s on Alex. He’s just so sensitive,” Reggie said, making you laugh slightly. 

“What are we waiting for, let’s get rehearsing!” Luke said eagerly. 

“Uh… where is Alex?” Julie asked just as he poofed back into the room. 

“Oh, hey Alex. Where’ve you been?” you asked the drummer. He looked slightly out of breath, and had a faint glow of happiness to him. 

“We need to start practicing,” Luke said, slightly annoyed.

“Yeah? For what?”

“Dance news!” Flynn called out as she walked in. “I don’t have a date. But I don’t care because I’m so psyched to see you guys perform.”

“Oh man, we’re playing a dance?” Alex asked, his disappointment evident in his voice. 

“Of course dude. That’s how we get a following nowadays.” Luke sat in the chair behind him. You laughed quietly. 

“Yeah, get with the program, Alex,” Julie laughed along with you. 

“What? The guys are here? Hey guys!” Flynn waved in the wrong direction. 

“Other way, sweetie,” you chuckled. “They’re sitting over here, with me.”

“Oh, yeah.” Flynn said quietly and waved in your direction. Reggie waved back.

“Okay, well, now that Alex has graced us with his presence, can we start working?” Luke asked, impatient.

“Yes! We’re gonna rehearse, you wanna stick around?” Julie asked Flynn, who frowned slightly. 

“I’m supposed to blow up 500 balloons for the school dance, but this sounds way better.”

Just then, Carlos burst into the studio and accidentally walked through Alex. “Hey Julie! Remember those orbs in dad’s pictures? I…. I think they’re ghosts.”

You, Julie, and the guys all shared a look. 

“But don’t worry,” Carlos continued, scanning the room. “This room is…. Is….” You sat forward slightly, waiting to hear his verdict. “This room is clear. I’m not getting the ghost tinglies.”

“Wrong again, little dude,” Reggie laughed. 

“Have no fear. If they come back, I will protect you because I am the man of the house.”

You laughed. “Isn’t Ray supposed to be the man of the house?”

“Isn’t dad supposed to be the man of the house?” Julie asked, echoing you. You smirked. 

Carlos crossed his arms. “There can be two,” he muttered, causing you to laugh again. “Dad needs all the help he can get, right?”

He held up a salt shaker. “According to the internet, this burns their souls out. A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming in here.”

Your eyes widened with fear. It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? Taking no chances, you pulled your legs up into the chair you were sitting in as Carlos threw some salt your way. 

“No!”Alex screamed as some salt hit him. “Nooo! Oh god, I’m…. I’m fine. I’m totally fine,” he said when nothing happened to him. You sighed in relief.

“Flynn, could you…?” you asked, nodding your head to indicate taking Carlos out of the studio. In times like these it was useful to be a ghost that only some people could see. 

“Hey, Carlos, you know who’s hungry? Me,” she said, taking your hint. “Um, salt me a path to the kitchen.”

“Shall we try this again?” Julie asked once they were gone.

“Yes please, but remind us later. There’s some Sunset Curve songs that we wanna show you,” Luke said, standing up again. 

“Oooo, show me now,” Julie said, pushing away her microphone. 

“Yeah, okay!” Luke said, putting down his guitar and walking over to his journal. He took a paper out of it and read the title of the song: “‘Home Is Where My Horse Is’. Reggie, stop putting your country songs in my journal.”

“That was a gift,” Reggie said, winking at you. 

“Thanks, buddy.” Ignoring Reggie as he tried to get Luke to look at the song, he walked over to Julie and handed her his journal. You walked over to look over her shoulder. “I dog-eared the ones I think you would slay.”

“Who’s Emily?” You asked, the name catching your eye as Julie flipped through the pages. 

“That one’s not dog-eared,” Luke said, frantically trying to get the journal back. Julie held it to her chest. You mouthed “sorry” at him as he looked at you.

“‘If you could only know that I’d never let you go’,” Julie read out loud. “Wow Luke, I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”

“He’s not,” Alex said, walking over. “That one’s actually about-”

“No one.” Luke cut him off. “Uh, that’s just something that I tried…” Was it your imagination, or did his eyes flicker over to you? “B- but if you go to the next dog-eared page, I got a tune that’s just…. It’s got a killer beat.”

He started playing the song on his guitar. You tilted your head to the side, sure that you had heard the song before. 

“So you wanna sample,” Julie spoke up, cutting Luke off. You realized where you had heard it before. It had been one of Rose’s favorite songs. 

Luke scoffed. “What do you mean, ‘sample’?”

“Sample someone else’s music,” you chimed in. 

“My mom and I used to sing that song at the top of our lungs in the car all the time.” 

“It’s a classic Trevor Wilson song.” 

Julie nodded, thankful that you knew what she was talking about.

“Nope.” Luke picked up his notebook. “It’s a classic our song.”

“Pure Sunset Curve,” Reggie said with a smile. “I’ve never even heard of Trevor Wilson.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re mixing it up, you know, with another song,” Alex said. 

“Julie doesn’t mix up songs,” you said. “Trust me.”

“Yeah, me and his daughter used to be best friends. We used to hang out at their place all the time! I know that song.” You looked at Julie. Having moved to Los Angeles after Julie and Carrie stopped being friends, you forgot sometimes that they used to like each other. 

“Here,” she said, pulling out her computer. “I’ll prove it.”

“His first album had a bunch of hits, but none of his later stuff is as good,” you said while Julie searched his name.

The boys gasped as she turned the computer around. You looked at her in confusion. 

“That’s Bobby,” Luke said.

“Seriously? I just told you his name is Trevor,” you said, slightly concerned for his memory. 

“Okay, so he changed it, alright? That’s definitely Bobby. He was our rhythm guitarist.” Alex spoke up. Reggie stood still, clearly in shock. 

Julie scoffed. “Trevor Wilson was in your band?”

“I can’t get over how old he looks…” Reggie finally said. 

“Oh, he looks like a substitute teacher,” Alex said in disgust. 

You looked at Julie in confusion again. Sure, you had had a few bad substitutes, but you didn’t think it was enough to be an insult. 

“Julie… what were his other hits?” Luke asked hesitantly. 

“”Get Lost’.”

“Yeah. I wrote that.”

“‘Long Weekend’?”

“Yeah, Luke wrote that one too,” Reggie spoke up. You and Julie looked at him, the surprise evident on her face. 

“‘Crooked Teeth’?”

“And that,” Alex said. “It was about Reggie.”

“What?” Reggie exclaimed, shocked and slightly hurt. “I thought that was about you! I don’t like that song anymore.” You held in a laugh. 

“Wait… this is freaking me out. Trevor’s songs are kind of big to me,” Julie explained as Luke picked up some darts. “He’s the one who introduced me to rock.”

“Yeah, and Julie introduced me to rock using his music,” you said. You were freaking out a little too. You loved Trevor’s songs, so it was pretty weird to think that the ghosts standing in front of you had actually written them. 

“Yeah, Luke introduced you to rock,” Alex scoffed. 

“So this whole time, I thought you were connected to my mom. But instead, you’re connected to Carrie’s dad? Out of all the people, it had to be the one girl who had it out for me.”

“All right, well, add it to our list of questions,” you muttered. 

“Back when Carrie and I were friends, the three of us used to talk about music all the time.” Julie looked at the guys. “He never mentioned you guys.”

“And that’s unbelievable!” Luke said, throwing another dart at the board. “He can take all the credit and he doesn’t even mention us?” Reggie shook his head slightly. 

“And he’s rich,” you said. The boys all looked at you. “He has his own helicopter.”

“With his face on it,” Julie added.

“And he parks it in front of that hotel?” Reggie asked in shock. 

“No. He gets to park it in front of his mansion.” You rolled your eyes. 

“Mansion?” Reggie’s voice cracked. 

“Dude, we live in a garage,” Alex spoke up.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about the music!” Luke said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.

“It’s a little bit about the money though!”

“A little bit about the money!”

“He could have shared it with our families! Maybe then my parents wouldn’t have had their house turned into a bike shack!”

“What he did is steal our legacy.” 

You felt really bad for them. You couldn’t even imagine how it would feel if you had worked that hard on something, and then someone stole it. 

Luke turned to Julie. “Where does he live.”

She sighed. “Above the beach in Malibu. 

“Let’s go teach him a lesson,” Reggie said. The boy’s face was usually so kind and bouncy, but now it was stone cold. 

“Wait, what? Guys! We have to rehearse for our dance! This is our first gig, and Y/N’s first time singing with us!” Julie said frantically, standing up. 

Alex glanced at you in confusion, and you remembered you hadn’t told him yet about you joining the band. 

Before you could say anything, however, Luke grabbed your hand and poofed out. 

-----

“Bobby’s house is ridiculous!” Alex exclaimed as you looked around.

“Have you seen these platinum records?” you asked.

Reggie turned and looked at them. “Platinum?”

Luke was staring at a different set of records. “He recorded ‘My Name Is Luke’...” he muttered. “My name is Luke!”

Just then a man walked in wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket.

“It’s him!” Reggie said. 

“Hey, Carrie! I’m gonna meditate!” Bobby called out. 

“He wears sunglasses indoors,” Reggie said, disgusted. 

“I’m in the den!” Carrie called out. 

“Cool!” Bobby called out before going upstairs. 

Reggie shook his head. “I can’t stand him!”

“Time for his past to haunt him,” Luke said, a scowl on his features. 

He started up the stairs, with Reggie following him and you following a bit more hesitantly.

“Wait!” Alex called out, making you all turn around. “You know, it’s my…. It’s my first time haunting someone. I wanna make it special.”

You looked at him, confusion written on your face. “Okay, Alex,” you said before turning around and continuing up the stairs, Luke and Reggie joining you. 

“Yeah, that was weird, okay,” you heard him mutter as he followed you. 

You made your way into Bobby’s room, where he sat with candles lit. 

“Agh!” you said as you felt another jolt of pain flair through your ankle. The boys looked at you, concerned. You shook your head to let them know you were fine. It was the weirdest thing, it’s like it flared up when it was the most inconvenient….

You watched the boys giggle as Luke gave Bobby a wet willy.

You and Alex snuck over to the candles, forgetting for a moment that no one could see you, and blew them out. 

Reggie turned on the music player, which started playing a rock song. Bobby walked over and turned it off, but Reggie just turned it back on, causing Bobby to unplug it. 

You hadn’t noticed Luke sneaking away, but he was gone when the shower turned on a moment later. 

“Carrie?” Bobby asked. You giggled with the boys.

Bobby walked into the bathroom to see the shower running just as Luke turned it off. The mirror across from the shower was now foggy, and perfect for a ghost to write on.

“Ooo, Luke, you should write ‘Hello, Bobby’ on it!” you suggested through a fit of giggles. Reggie pointed at you to show his agreement. 

Grinning, Luke wrote on the mirror in his best creepy handwriting, which also happened to be his best handwriting. 

Bobby tried to run out of the bathroom, but Alex held the door shut.

“Let… Me…. Out!!” he shouted. Alex finally let go of the door and Bobby practically fell out of the room, causing all of you to laugh.

Luke grabbed your hand again and you poofed down to the patio just as Bobby was leaving. You watched as his helicopter flew over your heads. 

“Oh! Quick, let’s moon him before he gets too far away,” Reggie said, causing you to roll your eyes. 

“He can’t see us,” you reminded them.

“Oh it’s not for him, it’s for us,” Luke said as he pulled down his pants. You averted your eyes. 

“So, did you guys have fun in there?” Julie asked, storming outside. 

“Okay, you’d do the exact same if he stole all of your songs,” Luke defended them. 

“But you guys have new songs. With me. The best way to get back at Trevor is for this band to do great. And to do great, we have to play at dances, then clubs-”

“And tours, I know.” Luke walked up to her. Julie still looked mad.

“I’ll see you guys at the school. We go on at nine. Please don’t be late. There’s gonna be a lot of people there.”

“We got it, alright? Don’t worry,” Alex said. 

Julie sighed as she headed back inside. 

“I don’t care what Julie says! I’m glad we scared Bobby,” Reggie said with a small grin. “We should’ve done more! Like… like written ‘thief’ on his forehead.”

“And Alex, how did you shut the door earlier? You could barely open a garage door,” you asked, confused. 

Reggie looked at his friend, proud of him. “Learned that from your new friend Willie, didn’t ya?”

Alex blushed slightly. “Yeah, well, he taught me some things, we screamed in a museum…” he caught the look of confusion on your face. “It’s a long story.”

Luke smirked. “You think he has a few other tricks up his sleeve?”

“Let’s find out,” Alex said with a shrug. 

-----

You landed near a beach, a boy on a skateboard coming to a stop in front of you. 

“Hey, what’s up man?” he said to Alex, doing a short handshake. “You brought friends.”

“Yeah, these are my bandmates, Luke, Reggie, and Y/N.”

“Cool, I’m Willie. So, you guys here to learn some tricks?” He waved his hand in the direction of two police fourwheelers, making their sirens go off. 

Reggie’s mouth hung open. “Do it again!”

“Actually, we were thinking a little bigger,” Luke said. “An old bandmate stole from us and we wanna confront him, face to face.”

“Alright, is this, uh, friend of yours a lifer?” Willie asked. 

“Oh, that’s fancy ghost lingo for the living,” Alex said before you could ask. “Little something I picked up.”

You caught Willie smiling at Alex. 

“Ah! Then yeah, he’s a lifer,” Reggie said, using the fancy ghost lingo he had just been taught. “Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs.”

You snorted. “Wait, that’s how you guys died?”  Julie had never told you, and you had just never discussed it with them. 

“Uh, that’s not important-” Luke started to say, but Willie cut him off.

“Wait, you didn’t die with them?”

“Uh, no,” you said, trying to stop laughing. “Some guy killed me.”

Willie winced. “Ouch.” You nodded. 

“Anyways,” Luke said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Can you help us?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Willie said, shaking his head. “Speaking to lifers is even out of my lead.” The guy’s faces fell. “You know, but there is one ghost who might be able to help you guys. He’s kind of a big deal…”

“Literally, anything would help,” Luke said. 

“Oh, alright. Well, um, I gotta take care of some things, but I’ll meet you where Alex and I met, eight o’clock. See ya.” He skated away. 

-----

“Right this way,” Willie said, leading you into a huge ballroom-type room.

“Whoa,” Luke muttered. “So this is where your hot-shot ghost lives, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve walked past this hotel like, a million times. How come we’ve never heard of it?”Alex asked. 

“That’s because this area has been sealed off for decades,” Willie said with a grin. “I mean, you wouldn’t even know this place exists unless you’re invited. Alright, I gotta go make sure everything’s cool, but I’ll be right back.” He turned and disappeared into the crowd.   

You inhaled sharply as the pain in your ankle flared up again. Luke looked over at you, confused, and you pointed to your ankle. He nodded, understanding.

“‘The Hollywood Ghost Club’?” Reggie asked, oblivious to what had just happened between you and Luke. “Man, this place is creepy.”

“Yeah, well, so are we.” Alex smiled.

“I don’t know about this,” you muttered. 

“Well, if you get scared, you can always hide behind me,” Alex said. “I’ll be hiding behind Luke.”

“You guys need to grow up, okay?” Luke said as Alex moved behind him. “We’re gonna get back at Bobby. He needs to pay for what he did to us.”

“Yeah.” Alex said. Then he whispered to you: “I’m still gonna hide behind him.”

Just then, Willie came back. “We’re all good!” he said with a smile. 

“Oh, uh, cool,” Alex said, flustered. “Hey, just so you know, we have like, an hour. We’ve got a gig with Julie.”

“Oh yeah, no worries.”

“Cool.”

“Let’s go.”

You all walked down the stairs, taking in all the fancy clothing people were wearing. Well, the four of you walked. Willie slid down the railing. 

“I think we’re a little overdressed,” Luke said. You smirked.

Suddenly a woman walked through Alex. 

“Whoa! I thought these people were all going to be ghosts,” Reggie said. 

“Nope. These are all lifers.” Willie gestured to the entirety of the club. 

“Oh, uh, lifers are actually-”

“Alive people, I was listening,” Reggie said, cutting off Alex with a smirk. 

“But this is a very exclusive crowd. Everybody here has uh, paid a lot to get a sneak peak at the afterlife.”

“I always knew rich people did weird stuff like this,” Reggie muttered, making you laugh. 

A ghost appeared behind you. 

“Gentleman, my lady,” he stopped and looked at you a moment. “I have a table for you.” Your heart sank as he misgendered you, but you didn’t correct him. 

“Oh, uh, Y/N here is actually non-binary,” Luke said. You beamed at him. 

“My apologies, gentlefolk. Right this way.”

You followed him to a reserved table in the front, right in front of the stage. 

Luke pulled out a chair for you to sit. You blushed. You also squealed internally when you noticed Willie do the same for Alex. 

“Okay, so who’s gonna make us visible so we can confront our old bandmate?” Luke asked Willie once everyone was seated. You looked around in wonder at the club.

“Oh, no, no. None of these lifers have the power to do that.” Dramatic music started to play out of nowhere. You thought you recognized the melody, although you couldn’t quite place it. “Oh, but here comes the ghost who does!”

“Ladies and gentleman,” boomed a voice from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, “back from the dead by popular demand, Caleb Covington!”

Willie cheered along with the rest of the club’s members as a man appeared floating above the stage. 

“Did you miss me?” he asked.

You gasped, your eyes widening.

“What?” Luke asked you. “What’s wrong?”

You turned to him with fear in your eyes. “That’s him.”

“Who?”

“The man who killed me.”

tag list: @sunsetcurvej @ifilwtmfc @xplrreylo @phantompogues @caitsymichelle13 @yagorlemmalyn

#jatp #jatpfic #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms fic #fanfiction #luke x reader #luke patterson x reader #x reader #jatp x reader #julie and the phantoms x reader #rhys writes sometimes #music worth making series

[himooonlight]

who are you? pt. 4 (reggie x reader)

pairing: reggie x reader

word count: 4.4k

plot: you dream about reggie constantly and when you see him perfoming with julie, you decide to ask her about him

warnings: confusion? EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE THOUGH, I PROMISE

A/N: look who is back :) I wanna thank @i-should-be-writing-my-own-fic for being so sweet to me and giving me such a thoughtful feedback about the story. that gave me the motivation I needed to keep writing - so keep in mind that comments help the writer, ok? just hope I’m not disappointing anyone with this chapter by the way… and sorry again for taking forever to update.

here's chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3

it’s @carolineeforbes' gif, by the way; I’m not sure how to add that “gif by…” at the end (cause I’m old and I know nothing about html)

As soon as the last class of the day ends, I make my way to Julie's locker so we can go to the cafe together. I haven't seen Reggie all day, but something tells me he's just as nervous as I am. Waiting for her, alone, I let my mind go to him, remembering his sweet smile.

  There's something about him that gives me peace. It's not explainable or rational; it's just there. An invisible feeling that makes me ecstatic, blissful because he exists. And if that's not love, if it's something else, I can accept and live with it knowing that he taught me how to feel visible, alive.

  Ironically, he is none of those things.

  - Y/N, hi! - Nick's voice greets me. - How are you?

  Nick is alone too. His blue eyes are darker than usual and his aura makes me shiver - more so than yesterday, his presence is heavy and disturbing. And I can't understand why. His clothes are darker than usual and even his cute freckles look more aggressive, if that's possible.

  Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, but I can almost swear I see the own devil in the smile on his face. His whole body looks stiffer and more brutal, making me step back mindlessly and look around for somebody that could confirm that his eyes are actually trying to hurt me.

  I'm out of my mind, for sure.

  - Hey, Nick. - I say. My voice is breathy and low, matching my demeanor. - I'm alright. How about you?

  I don't really wanna know about him and it's borderline annoying how my body is responding to the situation. My hands are shaking so much I have to hide them in my pockets. When my eyes start watering, I understand just how terrible the situation really is.

  - Why are you so afraid of me, hum? - There's an eerie glow in his eyes that can only be described as demonic. Nick is following my every move, almost like he is trying to control my actions or read my mind. When he gets closer to me and lets his thumb meet my right cheek, a single tear rolls down, to what he smiles. He's enjoying the situation. - It's just me.

  It's not him. It's not Nick.

  I don't know what is going on, but this person is evil.

  I can smell Nick's breath and see it too. It's purple and dense and I'm for sure out of my mind, because I can see it all around us as if trying to suffocate me.

  The purple mist swirls around my head and vanishes quickly while my tears dry. Nick's smile disappears and his stare holds something heavy like betrayal. He looks disappointed, annoyed, angry, all together.

  - I can't believe this. - He murmurs, stepping back. The boy is imitating a lost puppy or a spoiled kid that isn't getting what he wants. - Your soul is…

  Nick looks so shocked and that gives me strength. The sudden vigor allows me to break our eye contact and recompose myself, just in time to blink and get an image in my head like a daydream. But it wasn't a dream or my imagination; it feels like a memory, just like what I experience with Reggie.

  I see a big stage. The curtains are embroidered with CC's and everything is either black or gold. There's a tall man standing in the center, with the same aura as Nick, and the same expressive eyes. He's screaming for attention and validation.

  The man is wearing a velvet suit and sparkly shoes. I can tell he's narcissistic and have some kind of power over people, because nobody around the place is looking directly at him. They all look scared and conflicted; probably because he demands attention but makes them feel bad about it.

  Someone opens the curtain a little bit more and I can see a big glass box filled with water. Three assistants wrap his hands and feet with chains and when he sees me staring, a devious grin spreads across his face, making me shiver and get an urge to run.

  I manage to do that, going back to the school halls in real life, ignoring all that happened in my mind just seconds before.

  Nick is nowhere to be seen and my body is not shaking anymore.

  - Hey, Y/N. - Julie says. Flynn smiles at me and I try my best to do the same, but I'm still overwhelmed by the feeling of being controlled. - Are you alright? Not to be that person, but you look like you've seen a ghost.

  Flynn laughs while her friend winks at me, lighting up the mood. Still, I can't wrap my head around what just happened. I feel sick to my stomach, dizzy and they probably can see it in my face that I'm not fine.

  - Don't know if Reggie said anything to you, but they talked and Alex doesn't feel ready to go to the coffee shop yet. He's afraid that they're going to move on and disappear and he's not sure if that's what he wants now. - She explains. Flynn nods her head the whole time, agreeing with everything Julie says and making me wonder how much she knows. Probably everything. - But, really, are you feeling ok?

  - I think I just need to go home and sleep a bit. - After trying my best to assure them I'll be fine, I start making my way to the parking lot. We're not the best of friends, so I don't feel comfortable explaining anything, especially when Reggie's nowhere to be seen. - I'll see you tomorrow, ok?

  I can't find my sister's car when I get to our usual spot, so I just stand there, calming my senses and looking at the sky. It's a beautiful day with a few clouds and it's impossible not to find solace in the pretty blue infinity.

  The clouds are moving in all its glory. The cumulus clouds are very fluffy and not very high in the sky, letting me notice their cotton-like appearance distinctly. It's so peaceful that I can't stop my mind from wandering to Reggie and that same feeling of harmony and happiness that he makes me feel.

  - Julie told me you were not feeling well. - The boy startles me, making me jump and almost scream. - Did you fall? Did you eat something bad? Maybe you should go to the hospital. I should know that considering I died from a bad hot dog. What did you have?

  His wide eyes and fast words make me laugh, forgetting everything that happened previously. He tries to touch my hand and signs when that doesn't happen. I do the same, regretting momentarily the day I met him.

  I know I love Reggie. That feeling, however, is like getting tickled and laughing out loud. For someone just passing by, it might look like we're having fun, but it's also painful and excruciating. A smile doesn't necessarily means joy; sometimes it's just a mechanism to stay positive. And positivity is very important when the person you love is a ghost.

  - I'm alright now, don't worry. - In cue, Daisy arrives. - Wanna go home with me? - I ask, covering my mouth with my hand, pretending to yawn. He follows me without answering and the way Day looks at me as soon as I get inside tells me that she believes her little sister is simply happy with the tickling. - Hey.

  - Well, well, well. Look who is in love.

  Reggie sits in the backseat and it's inevitable to feel nervous. It doesn't really matter that Day can't see him; the only important thing is that we haven't talked about feelings yet and now he knows how I feel.

  He knows what I feel: love.

  Suddenly I am drowning in dichotomy, a bipolar feeling of relief and nervousness. 

  I am relieved that the "decision" is no longer in my hands.

  It's like that child's game, hot potato. The ball would pass in a circle and if the song ends and you are holding the object, the responsibility to run after someone is in your hands. Every time I held the ball as a kid, I felt excitement, anxiety and nervousness and yet I still enjoyed playing the game, even with the risk of losing. 

  Reggie knowing how I feel is basically that same feeling of not knowing whether I would have to run or be disappointed and relieved at the same time for not being chosen. The next step is his to take; to either stop the music or continue singing.

  - Sis? - Daisy's voice brings me back to the car and all the consequences. - Are you ok?

  - Yeah, yeah. Just a bit nervous about some school stuff.

  I met Reggie in school, so it's not exactly a lie. Josh's voice rings in my head saying "I ain't calling you a truther" and making me wish I could tell everybody about how I met Reginald and how much I like him.

  - We went from love interest to school project. Y/N, we really need to talk. - Reggie's remarks make me roll my eyes. - What am I to you? And you don't need to be nervous, darling. It's just me.

  It's just me.

  Same words that left Nick's lips.

  I feel shivers running down my spine, remembering everything. His gaze, the strong perfume and my own thoughts all over the place. What about my soul? What about me that scared him so much? And that stage? The magician?

  Too many questions for someone that just wanted a few answers.

  - Reggie, please, we'll talk later.

  Oh, no.

  Daisy is looking at me like I am crazy and she's possibly right. There's no way I am not losing my mind by now.

  - Who is Reggie?

  Oh, no.

  - Reggie?

  - Yeah, you just said his name. Is this part of your school thingy? - She bounces like a little kid, making me breathe normally. She's not about to ask if I lost my mind, great. - Practicing some of those insanely creative theatre games? How does this one work?

  Oh, yes.

  - I have to create this character, right? - Reggie scoots closer to listen to my explanation, sitting on the edge of the seat. I can see him through the rearview mirror and he has a curious expression on his face. A very cute expression that makes me smile. - For the whole day I have to talk to him, Reggie, like he really exists. - Daisy beams and that gives me courage to continue. - I get extra points if I get to make somebody else speak and interact with him, so do you wanna try?

  I really ain't a truther.

  The thing with my family is that they are incredibly supportive, especially Daisy and my dad. My sister's bad temper is not even half as intense as her supportive-big-sister-mode. Probably because of that that I don't have many friends - because it is very easy to get lost in my family's love. They make me feel like I don't really need other people, like nobody else would be as important as them, so why try? I've always had friends here and there, but opening up and trusting is a whole different story.

  Maybe that's why Reggie had such an impact on me; because he made me realize that the world is bigger than my little bubble, than what meets the eye.

  - I need to know a little more about this Reggie dude. Characteristics, please.

  - Reggie, what do you want me to tell her? - I look at him, turning my head to face his way and the view makes my heart melt: he's staring at us with thankful eyes.

  The boy is on the verge of tears. Happy tears, apparently. It feels so heartwarming to see his big white smile and his freckles from up close.

  - I… I don't know. What do you want her to know about me?

  - Well, Day is more than just my sister. - I reply while Daisy just smiles, keeping her attention on the road. - She's my best friend, so I'd like her to know everything about you. I know she'll like you anyways cause you're both sweethearts. You two like Star Wars and she says she hates puns, but that's a lie. And you're always making jokes and being adorable, so that's a start, right? You'll get along just fine.

  - What about appearance-wise? Is he cute? - My sister's question has Reggie laughing and blushing. Their interaction is so cute and the tears on Reggie's eyes say the same.

  - He has deep blue eyes, a pointy nose and some freckles that look like the galaxy. For all I know he could have the whole bear keeper constellation on his face, I swear. - The way he observes me speaking foolishly about him is encouraging and sweet. He seems to be admiring me too, intrigued by the way I describe his features.

  - Bear keeper constellation, hum? He should watch out for poisoning then.

  My sister giggles scares the hell out of me and by Reggie's silence and wide eyes, he's panicking too.

  - What? - I mumble.

  - Icarius? The wine story? - She tries explaining, but seeing my confused semblance, she continues. - Icarius died because some people thought he poisoned them with wine. They didn't understand alcohol back then and well, he died for nothing. Poor guy. After all, a god really did trust him with the wonders of wine because he was such a great person and he basically died for that. For being too good. - She shrugs like it's nothing, like I am not surprised and startled by the coincidence. I never heard that story in my life. - But what else? I wanna know more about him.

  Reggie shakes his head and closes his mouth, blinking a few times in the process. I take my time to study him once again, ignoring my own surprise.

  - He's funny, positive, loves animals and can be a bit of an airhead, but that's cause he's very creative and imaginative. He is a bassist, likes flirting and I'd say he uses jokes as a way to cope with sadness.

  I can't look at him while saying those things, so I fix my posture and stare at the car in front of us. It's too personal and I don't know how he truly feels about me and the way I read him. After all, I officially met him yesterday and every single dream could be wrong. My version of him could be wrong.

  I could only hope I was right and he would keep singing in that silent game of hot potato.

  - The only important question left is: what's his Harry Potter house?

  And that's how we spend the rest of the day watching Harry Potter, with Reggie sitting beside me with his eyes glued to the tv screen. When Chamber of Secrets ends, my parents get home and Day quickly explains that we'll be having company for dinner. Reggie doesn't leave my side for a second and even though I could speak to him when my sister was around, my parents might think differently, so I don't really hold my breath.

  - We have company for dinner, dad. - Daisy says.

  - Oh, really? - My dad asks. He's already in the kitchen, so we follow him there. Reggie sits on the counter while Day helps with the food and I just stand by the door, looking at my family. - Who is coming?

  Daisy does something funny with her eyebrows, teasing me, and I roll my eyes, because that's very rich coming from her. Reggie is silent, just studying our reactions and conversations, so I decide to imitate him, sitting by his side. I want him to feel included in the family, like he belongs there, like he is welcome in our house.

  - Dad, this is my friend Reginald, but you can call him Reggie. - I say, pointing at the boy next to me. I know they can't see him; it would be impossible considering he is dead. Reggie's eyes, however, beg for love and appreciation, so I don't mind making a fool of myself if that means I get to make him feel comfortable. - He'll be eating dinner with us tonight, if that's alright.

  - Well, sure. - My father answers, with a smile on his face and no second thoughts whatsoever. - We're happy to have you here, Reggie.

  Daisy winks at me and Reggie is astonished with my dad's answer, especially because he really is looking and speaking in his direction, to the place I pointed. That probably makes him feel alive, but I don't really have time to say anything else because soon enough my dad walks up to him and goes for a handshake. My dad doesn't wait for Reggie's hand to shake it, but the boy doesn't mind and lets his transparent skin go through my dad's solid body, trying any kind of connection he can.

  - Cold hands, hum? But are you really just friends with my daughter? Cause I don't recall any friends staying for dinner before.

  It's not really a surprise that my father would participate in any kind of experiment, project or whatever he thinks this is; his trust and love for me are the only irrational part of him and he is very good at that - trusting me with his eyes closed. As Daisy explains everything to him, his tired figure just keeps cooking dinner and making a few questions here and there. He starts with the basic "how was your day?" and moves on to "bassist that loves country music? That's new. I would like to listen to your music, Reggie".

  He's not weirded out by the situation and that makes me wonder if I should tell him the truth. Or at least half of it. Maybe he wouldn't understand everything, but at least I'd feel lighter. When he starts telling us the positive stories that he's seen in the hospital today, Reggie interrupts his monologue by leaving the kitchen, so I follow him.

  - What's wrong? - I ask, indicating my room. He goes in and I close the door. - Is everything okay?

  He doesn't answer for a moment. He just stands there, looking out the window. His torso is covered in the same black leather jacket that I've seen so many times before in my dreams and his hair looks perfect. He looks perfect. Even when he sniffs and starts crying.

  He looks perfect and I'm freaking out.

  - I am so sorry for today, Reggie. It was never my intention to make you feel bad, I swear. That doesn't mean you shouldn't feel whatever you're feeling; I'm just justifying myself really. - I start mumbling, letting the words come out of my mouth with no filter. - You don't have to stay, if you don't want to. You can leave and we can talk tomorrow... I don't know.

  He's not singing in our game of hot potato. Reggie's sad and it's painful to see him like that, crying, perhaps even regretful. After the heavy day, I can't stop myself from crying too, feeling unwanted, wrong.

  My heart hurts.

  My heart hurts for him, almost like we share the same body.

  - I forgot how much I missed being alive. - He says, letting his fingers roam his cheeks, cleaning any signs of tears. - It's not just about dying young, you know? It's like ordering a pizza that you know will never arrive, but you still don't order another one. You just keep waiting and waiting. And you can almost taste it; the cheese, the smell, the love in the shape of pepperoni… but it's still not enough. Being a ghost is not enough for me, Y/N. I need to make my own pizza or order something else.

  A glimpse of determination in Reggie's eyes makes me feel uneasy. If Alex said he didn't want to find out, "ordering something else" is off limits. Going alone to the cafe looking for answers could mess their friendship and hurt all of them even more.

  - Are you sure you can't wait a little bit more? We can wait together, if it helps. - My reasoning is not the best in the world; I am basically bargaining more time with him. - We can finish Harry Potter, I can show you some music. And, of course, you still have Julie and your friends, right? Maybe the pizza will arrive, Reggie. Have a little faith.

  He opens his mouth a few times, trying to say something, but nothing comes out. He shrugs and turns around, staring at the window again. Outside, the weather is the same and everything looks peaceful. But inside of him, things are different. His world is not the same as it was when he entered my house.

  He wants answers now.

  - What kind of music do you wanna show me?

  His smile is not reaching his eyes, but I take whatever I can get, grabbing my phone quickly and playing Taylor Swift. He falls in love with her banjo songs, like I knew he would, and then shows me some of his favorite musicians. We talk about movies and he's impressed to know that Back To The Future is a classic, considering that none of his friends liked it back then.

  It's so easy to talk to him. His overflowing attention and care is noticeable and heartwarming. It's not like he's just answering me, no, he's making conversation, showing interest and curiosity about me, about the things I like. And I do the same with him, because I wanna know everything there is to know, everything he wants me to know and love.

  With him so close to me it's very easy to forget he's not alive.

  - You know what I was thinking? - He asks with his face so close to mine that I can even count his freckles.

  - No. - I whisper and he chuckles. - What is it?

  - I really wish they could see me. Your family. They are so nice. I really wish my unfinished business involved them too so they could see me. - Reggie sounds sad again, so put my hand on his knee, not really touching him. We're sitting on the floor, with our backs resting on the wall and our legs close to our chests, looking like two lost kids. - At least I've got you.

  - Your parents probably miss you too, you know? Don't you think we should look for them? Do you think it would help?

  - I am not sure anymore. I think I want to know, but at the same time what if I get disappointed? What if they don't care about me anymore? Don't think about me at all? Or what if they do? What if they can't move on? - He touches my hand softly and I can tell he has to focus a lot for that to happen. - It's also scary to see what they've become. To see what my future could've been.

  He doesn't say anything else after that. His thumb tries stroking my skin and it takes a while until he finally succeeds. My heart is about to get out of my chest and I stay still, afraid that he'll run away like he did the night before.

  - You are not your parents, Reggie, just as I am not mine. As much as they are responsible for us to some extent, it's not as if we are a property being marked by our last name. Our family is not our whole world; if anything, they're the cheerleaders who stand outside the field cheering for us. Well, - I feel his gentle touch more prominently so I turn my gaze to our connected hands. - at least it should be like that. But anyway, I'm very proud of you. You are a beautiful, loved human being with an incredible capacity to love others. Alive or dead, you're full of life and that's amazing.

  I don't want to extend the topic too much, just in case he's not ready for it, but I know that our parents also lost individual characteristics when they became parents. They didn't have their own names anymore; they were "my father" and "my mother". It seemed that they were less their own and more ours, as if their value was linked to their children in some way.

  - I… thank you. - Suddenly I can't feel his touch anymore. Disappointed, we stand up at the same time and again, we're so close I can memorize the exact shape of his lips. - You have no idea how much I… I needed this. Needed you. How much I need you. I'm happy we found each other, Y/N. I really am.

  - Me too, Reggie. I just wish our timing was a bit better, you know?

  - Yeah… I mean, the world is so old, right? At least we got some time here together. Let's just enjoy it from now on. Like it's now or never. - He smiles brightly again and I imitate him. - That's one of our songs, by the way. You need to hear -

  The doorbell startles us. Reggie and I laugh at our own reactions and I go get the door. When I open it, Nick is there, with arrogant eyes and an infuriating smile.

  - Hey, Y/N. - He says. - I think we need to talk. Now.

  - Honey, who is this? - My mother asks me. Just like Daisy, she has that pretentious grin that tells me she thinks we're more than friends. - Is this Reggie that your dad was telling me about? Come in, sweetheart. Dinner is almost ready.

  Mom runs to the kitchen, probably to tell the others about the news, and I'm scared again. If looks could kill, I'd be just like Reggie now.

  - Oh, so Reggie is here too? Good, that way we can kill two birds with one stone. - Reggie comes to the rescue, but he looks just as conflicted and confused as me. - And just so you know, you're one of the birds, Y/N, and I won't let you escape again.

  - What is this little dude talking about? - Reggie asks.

  Nick's head turns to Reggie's direction and I feel sick again. It's hard to breathe and the purple mist coming out of the blonde's mouth is scarier than before. He's standing at my door, invading my house and threatening me. Everything is too much, my own body, my own thoughts and the house feels smaller and smaller.

  - I am talking about you, your friends and this rat right here. I've been looking for you for two lifetimes already and I'm not letting you go again. Not without getting my revenge first.

taglist: @revolutionary-werewolf-ghosts

#Reggie #reggie x y/n #reggie x reader #Reggie fanfic #reggie jatp #julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms fanfic #julie and luke fanfic #alex and willie fanfic #jeremy shada #Fanfic reader #reader fanfic #reader fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic fluff #fanfic

[justkending]

Starstruck. Chapter 1.

Summary: Bucky Barnes works at a hospital in NYC as an E.R. doctor. Him and his a group of his friends all plan a trip to Texas to attend ACL music festival. It’s not really Bucky’s scene, but one particular artist that is performing there is his celebrity crush, Y/N Blaire. Y/N is a country pop singer who is on the up and coming rise in the music industry. What’s to come of the two? Well, that’s for them to explore and you to find out...

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Y/N Blaire (Reader)

Word count: 4300+

A/N: This idea was one of those ones that once it came, there was no getting it out of my head. SO here we are actually putting it in writing. Hopefully I can give it the justice it deserves! Also, fair note to make, I recently went to ACL this year and this is where the idea kinda blossomed. I watched an amazing selection of all kinds of artist I already knew and some that I grew to love. I say this because Kacey Musgrave was one of those individuals and I haven’t stopped listening to her albums since I went, and I love her type of music as well as voice. So, each chapter will have a song that goes with it from her. In other words, the reader is based off of Kacey. Her type of music and voice are going to be what the reader characterizes as. Enjoy and let me know what you think!!!

NEW SERIES FOR A NEW YEAR!! HAPYY NEW YEAR!!!

Songs: 

Enough- Alex Roe 

Dime Store Cowgirl- Kacey Musgraves

Chapter 1:

“Come on! We have to hurry if we’re going to make it to the Honda stage!” Bucky grunted, maneuvering his way through 75,000 people that were also trying to get around the crowd.

He had taken the lead of the group with Clint, Wanda, Nat, and Steve following single filed.

“Bucky, slow down! The girls can’t push past as fast,” Steve shouted on the tail end of the line.

“I can hold my own, Steve.” Nat sassed sending him a playful glare.

He just chuckled, placing a hand on her back as he moved to the side for yet another person as they continued to sneak through everyone else. 

Once they got to the middle of the park, where it was a lot more spacious, they all scoped out the stage they were looking for, seeing it was already filling up. The concert goers already standing to the back of the field. Clearly there were about 2-3 thousand people waiting for the next performer to go on.

“Damn it. We’re too late. We can’t get close to the stage,” Bucky mumbled upset that the one singer he wanted to see was going to have to be from a good distance. 

“Who even is this girl and why is Barnes having a full on fangirl moment?” Clint chuckled getting an elbow to the ribs from Nat.

“She’s a really good artist,” Bucky rolled his eyes as they moved as close to the stage as possible. 

“She’s an up and coming country pop singer,” Wanda spoke up. 

“Country? Since when is Bucky into anything country? I thought he was into the old classics,” Clint scoffed. 

“She’s the one exception. When he figured out she existed, that’s all that played in our apartment for 4 months,” Steve laughed. “I’m sure it didn’t stop though after he moved out.”

“Hey. You loved it and you know it,” Bucky pointed a finger at his best friend. 

“She’s good. I’ll give you that.” Steve held out his hands up in surrender. “Clint, I’m sure you’ll like her.”

“Hey, I’m all for a little country music,” Clint replied.

“It’s a subtle country twinge to it though. Nothing overbearing,” Wanda added. 

“Wanda, you a fan too?” Nat asked. 

“Maybe not as much as Barnes here, but yes. I’ve listened to her for a while,” Wanda nodded. 

“How much longer until she’s on?” Nat asked, turning to the stage.

“About 23 minutes,” Bucky said looking over everyone's heads as they got as close as they could without being squashed. 

“It’s a good thing Sam couldn’t come. He would definitely be making some comments and jokes about your little obsession,” Clint chuckled under his breath.

“Shut up!” Bucky groaned. “She’s just really good and a good person.” 

“Oh, so you’ve met her?” Steve nudged his arm with Bucky’s.

“No, but she isn't in any of the bad media,” Bucky answered. “Unlike her stupid boyfriend.”

“She has a boyfriend.” Wanda asked.

“Yeah, Quentin Beck. He’s an actor, but did a few albums a while back. He has a bad rap from the past. Big time party goer, manipulative, and always messed with peoples head making them think he was a good guy when he wasn’t. Complete dick from what I’ve heard.” Bucky crossed his arms looking ahead at the stage. “Apparently, he went through this whole life changing stage, and now he’s all sweet and generous. Of course, everyone thinks it’s cause Y/N had that effect on him.”

“Ok, has Barnes been internet stalking this girl forever or…” Clint said eyebrows raised. 

“Shut up. I just keep up with the news and read, punk,” Bucky sent daggers Clint’s way. 

“Whatever you want to call it man. I personally call it stalking.” Clint shrugged getting a shove from the dark haired man. 

���Boys, cut it out.” Nat said stepping between the two. “If it wasn’t for this girl, we wouldn’t have got Bucky to come. So I say we enjoy her show, and stop teasing Barnes on his obvious crush.”

“It’s not a crush!” Bucky groaned.

“Sure cowboy. Sure thing,” Wanda patted his back with a wink getting a chuckle out of him before he wrapped an arm over her shoulder and gave her a squeeze.

“You’re the only one who gets me,” he smiled.

“Eh, what are friends for? Plus us Y/N Blaire fans got to stick together,” she winked at him. 

Sure enough 23 minutes later, music began to play, and the crowd went crazy. Wanda squeezed Bucky’s waist looking up seeing him staring trying to find the singer he had come almost 2000 miles to see. 

When they heard the crowd get even louder, they saw she had walked on in an outfit that screamed her, and her guitar thrown over her shoulder. 

She was smiling and waving at the crowd with a giant genuine grin. Even though the group of friends were a really good distance away, the giant stadium sized screens on both sides of the stage showed her perfectly.

She was wearing a green leaf textured top that was short yet modest. Her skirt was what looked like an old renaissance painting in fabric form. She had bracelets up her arm, and necklaces hanging from her neck. Her hair thrown into a messy yet intricate braided style with a custom cowboy hat with a flat rim around it sew in with detailed embroidery.

“Her outfit is so cute.” Nat said leaning to look past Bucky and talk to Wanda. 

“Her style is literally the best. It’s ranges from hippy/hipster with a twinge of country to itl. She done some fun things that you think would never work, but somehow look amazing on her!” Wanda agreed. 

“Is that where you get your inspiration?” Nat laughed motioning to Wanda's witchy-hipster-vibe.  

“I’d be proud to be compared to her,” she winked before turning back to the stage.

“Oh, my! Look at all you lovely people!” Y/N said into her mic that stood in a stand in front of her as she scanned the sea of individuals. “I would have never guessed to see this many people. Holy shit!” she laughed stepping back and putting her hand on her cheek as she listened to them scream.

“Ok, she’s pretty cute. I’ll give you that, Barnes,” Clint laughed getting a nod of agreement from Steve. 

“Back off, Barton,” Bucky laughed back sending a teasing look. 

“Sure... No crush at all...” Clint rolled his eyes playfully.

“As most of you probably know, Austin is one of my favorite places here in Texas beside my hometown,” Y/N continued and paused as the crowd screamed again making her laugh in the mic and making Bucky’s heart skip a beat at the sound. “And it’s crazy to think that a little over 5 years back, I was just a struggling artist doing small gigs in cafes and bars, and playing on the street for a little extra cash.” She let out a breath and held her hand to her heart. “It’s a dream to be asked to play here along with some AMAZING artist,” she emphasized. “Like. I honestly don’t know if this is real or if I’m going to wake up in a few minutes.” More cheers. “Anyway, you guys didn’t come here to hear me gawk at what my life is now, so let’s get a move on!” she said pumping her hand getting the loudest screams so far. 

She turned to the rest of the band before counting down and starting to strum her guitar.

Everyone took in the performance with awe. Bucky especially, he sang along with Wanda on a few songs, but mainly just took in the moment listening to her and her voice. 

He literally had never seen someone perform live so well and so gracefully. She was a great stage presence and got the crowd all riled up as the songs changed. She interacted with them stopping in between songs to talk to the crowd before leading to the next song. She was amazing. Absolutely stunning and Bucky’s stomach was overwhelmed with butterflies just having an experience with his friends like this. 

“Ok, for this last song-” the crowd booed and let out sad shouts. “I know, I know. I don’t want it to end either, but someone else needs this stage,” she laughed taking off the guitar and grabbing her mic. “But I promise you’ll love me for this next part. I have a special guest that you may all know, that’s going to duet with me on this last song.” The crowd chanted waiting for the surprise. “Want to come out?” she turned to the side stage. 

Everyone turned immediately shouting seeing who it was. 

The crowd going crazy seeing Quintin Beck wave coming out with his own mic. Bucky not too enthused by him. Annoyed? Yeah for sure. But it was because this guy had a bad reputation and he didn’t quite understand someone like Y/N who was known for her kindness being with a gaslighter. 

“Hey everyone!” he smiled coming out and moving straight to Y/N taking her in a long hug. He turned back to the crowd with his arm still around her waist and smiled. “How’s everyone doing tonight?” Screams. “I would be too if you get to hear this angel sing,” he winked at her getting a loud awe from the people. 

“How do you feel about giving them a special duet?” she giggled leaning her head on his shoulders.

Though a simple action, something in Bucky’s body cringed. 

“I’d say they shouted enough for it,” he smiled at her before she nodded to the band and they started back up. 

They began singing one of Beck’s songs together. It was a slower love song called Enough. He had recorded it a while back, but when they started dating, they re-did it making it top of the charts for a while. 

Her voice always seemed to be so smooth and easy going. Bucky hated to admit it, but Quintin voice mixed well into the song. Especially when she came in and harmonized. He didn’t think it was possible for it to sound more perfect, but the harmony smacked him in the face. Probably doing the same to everyone else. 

When they finished they did a small bow, and the crowd began chanting for them to kiss. Making Bucky let out a groan and look away.

“Jealous, Buck?” Steve leaned in with a chuckle.

“Shut up, punk.” he said looking back up and seeing Quintin just land a subtle kiss to her cheek making the concert goers whoop and holler. 

“Whatever, Jerk,” Steve laughed.

“You’ve all be amazing! I hope you all enjoy the rest of the concerts! I heard my friend Kacey Musgraves is here, so I may need to join you in watching her!” she winked at one of the camera. “I love you ya’ll! Have a great and safe night! Thank you!” she waved walking back and disappearing with Quintin already waiting on the side for her.

“Ok, let’s head to The Cure before heading back to the hotel. They’re one of the last acts tonight.” Nat said pushing the boys to the next stage in hopes of getting there a little bit sooner than others. 

“So, what’d you think Clint? Still going to make fun of me for liking her?” Buck asked, smacking his friends back.

“I’ll give it to you, Barnes. She’s cute, talented, and seems like a sweet person. You’ve got good taste,” Clinton laughed. 

“Told ya.” 

“I think you just added to her fan club, Buck.” Steve winked. 

They all laughed as they worked their way through the crowd for the last concert of the night. Only one more day to go then it was back to work for all of them.

_______

The last day of ACL had been exhausting to say the least. They were planning on leaving before the festival ended, so they had taken the first half of the day to venture downtown Austin. They had just finished lunch at a pizza place, and the girls said they wanted to do a little shopping down the strip before heading back to the concerts. 

“How long does it take to look through one tiny shop?” Bucky groaned as they stood outside another boutique.

“You don’t shop with girls very often, do you?” Steve laughed. 

“I’m sorry I don’t have a girlfriend. I have a pretty demanding job and haven't fully settled with it enough to get a girlfriend,” Bucky sassed. 

“You’ve been an ER doctor for over 7 years. I would hope by now you have some kind of grasp on the job,” Clint snorted. 

“You’re a cop, Barton. It’s not as easy as the people on TV make it look,” Bucky retorted. 

“I’m Captain of a precinct. It’s a little more work than a cop.” Clint rolled his eyes. “Plus, I still make time for Laura, don’t I?”

“You were high school sweethearts.” 

“You’re point?”

“Come on Buck. When’s the last time you even went out on a date?” Steve nudged him. “Peggy has friends she can set you up with.”

“We’ve tried that already, remember? The girl had the color scheme of our wedding, and the name of our imaginary kids already picked out by the second rounds of drink.” Buck huffed. 

“Yeah, she was a little intense,” Steve pursed his lips as he rocked on his heels. “That may have been one of the new girls at Peggy’s office that she was just trying to introduce to new friends. She ended up being a little too clingy for all of us.”

“You think?” Bucky snorted. 

“What about-”

“What about I go into this quiet and empty bookstore, and as soon as the girls are done, you can come and get me?” he didn’t wait for an answer since he was over them trying to set him up once again. “You know Nat’s single too! Why don’t you try setting her up with someone?”

He huffed as he walked into the close-to-empty small book store. Only about 3 people in there. He let out a sigh as he ran his hand over his face, and walked to the back of the store. 

Just as he was rounding the corner, he hit a smaller body turning the same corner. 

“Oh god! I’m so sorry!” the woman said moving to grab the books in her hand and keep them from falling. 

Bucky reacted quickly and put his hands on the same book making it to where his larger hands were covering the woman’s smaller ones in support. 

“No, no! That’s my fault, doll.” he awkwardly chuckled as he tried looking at her face, but she was wearing a felt floppy hat covering her features. “You ok?”

She finally looked up once the books were steady in her hands, and smiled up at him. His heart stopped instantly. 

No. Way.

“Doll? Cute little pet name, Sweetheart,” she replied back with a sweet and soft southern accent. 

“Y-You’re- Y-” he began stuttering and her face slightly dropped from smiling, to nervous. 

“Oh, please don’t shout or something,” she whispered adjusting the books in her hand and the hat on her head. “I take it you’re a fan,” she smiled softly at him.

Holy shit, she was more beautiful up close. Even all those album covers with her hair and makeup all done, and the little photoshoots from the magazines didn’t do her justice in person. 

“Uh, yeah,” he let out a chuckle. “But don’t worry. I won’t cause a scene,” he said turning back to see the store was still vacant practically. Somehow his voice not staggering now. 

“I appreciate it,” she smiled looking over his shoulder. “Us ‘famous people’ still do normal human stuff too. Believe it or not,” she winked at him making his heart actually flutter. 

“No, no, Ha. I believe it. But, uh this is a pretty popular part of town. Why here?” he asked moving to where he was blocking anyone from behind them to see her. She caught the gesture and her smile grew at it knowing his kind intentions. “I mean especially during ACL. More people souvenir shopping.”

“Very true,” she giggled. “But uh, I don’t get to come back to Austin very often, and this my favorite little bookstore. Thought while I was in town…” she shrugged. 

“I see,” he chuckled. 

“That plus, most people skip the book store and go straight for the overpriced boutiques,” she joked. 

“Shame too. Who wouldn’t want a book from a new city?” he said crossing his arms. 

How was he so calm around her? He had been a fan of hers for years. Shouldn’t he be a nervous, sweating, stuttering wreck. I mean sure his heart was beating about 100x more than it should of, but he was having easy conversation somehow.

“Right?” she breathed out a soft laugh. “God. Someone who gets it,” she grinned.

“I’m, uh, I’m Bucky,” he said putting a hand out and offering it to her. 

“Y/N. But I’m sure you already knew that,” she chuckled again before taking his hand with her free one. “You from around here, Bucky?”

“No actually. My friends and I came down from New York,” he said regretfully taking his hand back, but it would be weird to hold onto it longer. Right?

“New York? That’s quite the trip. Tell me you flew, and didn’t drive the whole way.” she said raising an eyebrow.

“No, flying was definitely the only way my friends would have got me here. I don’t think they could handle 26 hours in the car ride here,” he laughed making her join him. God, he wanted to make her make that sound about 5687 more times. 

“Not a big road trip person?” she asked. 

“No, I’m a big road trip fan. I think a little too much sometimes. They probably would have been annoyed of me halfway here.”

“Same here. I can be a little too cheery in a tight car,” she said. 

“Blaire!” Someone from behind yelled. “We gotta get moving. We got a busy schedule today, and we have to drop Quin off at the airport.” 

She looked over Bucky’s shoulder seeing a man in jeans and a t-shirt, but fancy sunglasses and a phone to his ear.

“Ok, be right there,” she nodded. She turned back to Bucky and sent him an apologetic smile. “It was nice talking to you Bucky, but the superstar life doesn’t rest unfortunately.” she shrugged. 

“No, no. Go ahead. I’m sure you have better things to do than talk to a stranger in a bookstore,” he chuckled awkwardly. 

“I don’t know. This was turning out to be an interesting little conversation Bucky,” she grinned, and he about burst at her saying his name again. “You going to the last day of ACL?” she said, moving around him but still looking to him. 

“Uh, yeah. My friends and I are going to head that way soon,” he nodded. 

“Well, little tip. If you have a chance, go check out Kacey Musgrave’s stage if you can. I heard there’s going to be a little surprise,” she winked before turning and walking back to the desk. 

Bucky watched as she checked out and talked to the man that had called on her earlier. Just as she was leaving though, she turned back looking for him and sent him a small wave. He returned it and she smiled one more time making him actually melt into his spot before disappearing. 

“Dude, we called you like 5x times. What took you so long? I was about to go in there and hunt you down,” Steve said seeing Bucky in a dazed face with a stupid grin on his face. “Buck, what’s going on with you?”

_____

They went ahead and headed to the music festival for the last few concerts before flying back home. Bucky explained to them what had happened and how he had had a full conversation with the Y/N Blaire, but no one believed him but Wanda. Either that or they were just messing with him to irritate him. They just kept teasing him about how he was daydreaming and thinking up scenarios he just WANTED to happen. 

“Ok, so Kacey Musgrave next?” Nat asked as they were walking around.

“Yeah, I think that’s the last one we have time for before heading out,” Steve nodded. 

“Y/N said there was going to be a big surprise at her show too. I think it’s a good note to end on,” Bucky spoke up.

“Sureeee thing, Barnes. Y/N probably did say that,” Clint winked elbowing his friend. 

“Barton, I swear if you keep joking around about not believing me, I’ll punch you so hard and leave you passed out on the grass for some drunk person to throw up on you,” Bucky groaned over the teasing. 

“Give him a break guys. The man met the love of his life. You can’t blame him for being so awestruck he forgot to get proof of it,” Wanda patted his back reassuring him. 

“Thanks Wanda,” he smiled at the one person who didn’t annoy him to no end. “Wait-” 

“Let’s go guys. If we want a good spot at least,” Nat laughed waving them on. 

They ended up getting a good spot pretty close to the gate. Sure it was about 40-50ft away from it, but that was good for ACL’s crowds. 

Kacey came out eventually and did an amazing performance. Her stage lit up with pastels and whimsical colors. 

“Okay everyone! As you know, I grew up in a small town in Texas, and I’m not the only artist performing here this week who did,” she smiled on the big screen getting the crowd to scream.

“No fucking way,” Bucky muttered to himself, but Steve heard and turned to him.

“What?” Steve said watching his friends mouth drop and Wanda’s doing the same. “Wanda, what am I missing?”

“This girl and I actually grew up just a few towns away from each other. Little did we know, that we hung out with each other through mutual friends a few times. But who would’ve thought we would be here together?” Kacey laughed. “So without further ado. I have a little guest star that’s going to sing an older song of mine. Y/N/N, you wanna come out here and say hi?” she motioned to the side stage like Y/N had with Quintin. 

The crowd going nuts once more. 

“Hey!” she waved in a new attire. “How are y'all doing?” Again more shouts and screams of excitement. 

“Well, would you look at that? Maybe Bucky did meet her,” Steve chuckled lightly, picking up on the surprise that she had supposedly told him about. 

“I told you, punk!” Bucky said pointing a finger. “Take that asshole,” he said turning to Clint who was just laughing hysterically. 

“If there is one song that I can fully relate to that Miss. Kacey has created, it’s Dime Store Cowgirl. Small town southern girls, am I right?” Y/N grinned. 

“Shall we then?” Kacey asked. 

“Oh. We shall,” Y/N smiled giving her a side hug before they both pulled back and waved to the band signaling the song. 

Everyone screaming and shouting the song with the two. Then just as fast as it happened, Y/N and Kacey were bowing and saying their final goodbyes with a few blown kisses to the crowd.

“Goodnight Austin! I love you!” Kacey screamed as they left side by side. Y/N blowing kisses as they walked. 

The crew packed up and left that night. Heading back to the real world unfortunately. All Bucky could think about was how he would probably never see Y/N again. Not like he did in the bookstore at least.

Nope. That was a one time thing, and quite honestly he wondered if it was all a dream. Maybe she would come to NYC soon, and he could see her in concert again. It wouldn’t be the same, but it would be better than never seeing her in person again. Right?

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[kazbrkker]

Chapter 3: Embedded

Chapter summary: With the help of the Aces, the Urzikstan militia successfully gained a step closer to their mission. Meanwhile, Alex pieced together the scraps to uncover a hint of how Farah and Hadir knew Alexis five years ago.

Warnings: mentions of captivity, trauma recovery, weapons and violence.

26 OCTOBER 2019, 1530 "Alexis" and "Alex", Codename Aces CIA with Urzik Militia Aqtabi, Urzikstan.

Alexis adjusted the headdress for Alex, checking if it properly covered his face. He snatched her wrist mid-air, staring in concern, "Alena, huh. Haven't heard that in years. Thought she was dead."

Alena was Alexis' latest alias, the second alias created in the CIA and the fifth alias in her career. Seeing how her aliases were on a strictly need-to-know basis, it was shocking that both Farah and Hadir would know her by name. Especially since Alexis had a habit of only introducing herself as Saint.

The silver lining was that Alex could at least pinpoint when Alexis met the militia leader and brother. Five years ago, then known as Alena, her cover was blown.

It almost cost Alexis her life, barely escaping from the clutches of the mob alive. Alex led the covert search in Moscow for her, but found no evidence of her presence anywhere he looked. He desperately combed through every possible lead, refusing to stop even for just a second. Alex searched high and low everywhere for a full five months all while she was in custody of the mob. Until one day, she mysteriously turned up alive and patched up in St. Petersburg.

She never talked about what transpired in her captivity, nor did he pushed. But it thoroughly changed her, left psychological scars so deeply embedded in her that even Alex couldn't reach. 

"She is." Alexis reaffirmed, stuffing his fleeting thoughts back into their respective spaces in his brain. Their gaze connected, nodded reassuringly as she gently pried away from Alex's tight grip, "For everyone's sake, she's dead."

"She must be. You took such a long time recovering from–"

"Alex, don't." She whispered, words coated with a layer of unexpected sternness that stunned the two. "Alena is dead. End of story." The words rolled off her tongue with a shred of hostility. She turned on her heel, fixing on her own headscarf wordlessly to end the conversation. Farah stood by the window gathering intel from uncle Tariq, they had a limited window to hit the airbase and they needed to take it. 

Alex sighed worriedly, chasing after his best friend. The trio checked their ears comms, concealed their sidearms and headed out. Barkov's propaganda was blasted all over the loudspeakers. There wasn't anywhere you could hide from the dictator's brainwashing audio. Blended in as civilians, they walked down an abandoned, bombed-out bazaar swarmed with heavy military presence. Alexis' face scrunched in disgust, steering clear from the soldiers with guard dogs, "I hate dogs."

The soldiers freely abused the civilians, yelling and beating. She forcibly dug into her palms to maintain her composure when she witnessed one soldier dragging a civilian into a store, gunshots shortly followed. The said soldier walked out, wiping his blood-stained boots off concrete blocks in disgust. The blood on his boots repulsed him more than his ability to mindlessly take a human's life.

It was a mess, all of it — almost Hell on Earth. As blood-boiling and downright revolting it was, both CIA agents had seen and walked through worse. By now, it only served as a living memento of why she existed. Cold, she knows.

Later, the three of them lined up for labor work to blend in. Alexis tailed behind Farah, sneaking to a side door while Alex was isolated to carry cinder blocks. They reunited on the other side, ambushing an unaware, strayed soldier who was ruthlessly punching a vulnerable woman. Alex nippily stabbed him with the knife in his boot.

Farah assisted the woman to her feet while Alexis stayed for lookout. "Karim?"

"Stay safe, sister." She was thankful they got to the woman before the soldier could have done more. They broke open a door that led into another alley. "You're resourceful. Good." Farah caught a triumphant wink from Alexis, bearing full credit. "Let's go. I have contacts posted just ahead. They'll have more explosives for us. A bigger blast will pull more forces away from their base."

The small entourage defended each other's six, stealthily hiding behind a truck. Four soldiers stood where Farah's men were supposed to be. "Shit. Barkov's soldiers have found my contacts. They may be dead already."

"That means they are already on high alert." They'd have to kill these men to bypass them.

"Can't go loud, we need a suppressor."

"Find an oil filter. It will silence your weapons. Check civilian cars. I'll keep watch on the guards." Farah stayed as lookout. 

Alex and Alexis snuck into a nearby garage filled with civilian vehicles. "You look for the oil filters, I'll go find some makeshift thread adaptors."

"Yes ma'am," He singsonged, the tension between them already dissolved. They had a code, personal feelings would never be brought into the field. It was a lethal mistake that both of them knew better.

Alexis attached an oil filter through a hollow steel screw bolt, shaking her sidearm to check its stability. She grinned when it didn't rattle, score.

"That'll do. Nicely done," Alex praised.

"I know. What would you do without me?"

He winked, "I ask myself that every day."

They met Farah back at the truck, "Alex, flank right and take the two. Alexis and I will take the rest."

Upon two muffled shots, Alexis dropped the soldier in her crosshairs. She fired twice, once to break through the filter and another between her target's eyes. Unfortunately, the suppressor did not silence their gunshots enough, evident from the new soldier bursting through the door.

And he had Alexis in his shot.

She barely heard the whisper of her name before she ran forward, kicking his kneecaps to debilitate him.

"Alexis, move! I have a shot." She heard Alex over the comms.

Ignoring him, Alexis skillfully ducked a swing to swipe the combat knife in her boot, immaculately stabbing into his larynx in one clean move. She calmly dug deeper, laying the almost dead but silent soldier on the ground softly after she heard a muffled crack. Now, he was dead. 

"I rest my case." She cleaned her blade from the bloodied mess, eyes crinkling at Alex's overprotective nature. He'd always have her back.

In the next building, they lodged some bullets in a few more soldiers and successfully retrieved Farah's explosives. They were ready for phase two of the plan – bomb the airbase.

"I'm sorry about your contacts," Alex said, a statement more than an apology.

Regardless, Farah accepted with a nod. "We have the explosives. Their sacrifice will not be in vain. Hide the gun. We're going back outside. Follow me, I'll lead."

Alexis understood Alex's detachment, sharing it. From young, they were hardened by bloodshed, numbed. The first lesson they taught in special ops was compartmentalization and emotional detachment. Having served in tier-one task forces, it was hard to let anything faze them and throw them off course. Years of witnessing murders and getting their hands dirty changed them.

That remained the case. Until they stepped out.

Hell on Earth. Alexis decided as they came upon a staged execution – three civilians hung alive by a crane. They were subjected to helplessly watch it unfold. She bit the insides of her cheeks, seeing more accused awaiting their death sentence.

"This is a god damn war crime." Alex gritted out in disgust. This whole scene was mortifying repulsive. Under her head scarf, her lips were slightly parted and staggered breathing. A rare sight of lost composure for the female agent yet nobody could witness.

Around them, no one dared to weep, even though the immoral and unjust scene would command angry tears for anyone. Shedding a tear meant sympathy for the opposition and in Barkov's eyes, sympathy was treason.

Freedom, a concept unfathomed by the great evils in the world. Evils like Barkov, each thoroughly convinced they were guided by the angels. On the right side of history.

"Punishment, for the stolen gas... Barkov blames us for stealing it." Farah stated plainly with a lack of emotions in her tone. Hardened by years of warfare too.

Alexis' fingers glossed over the cold metal of her .357 Magnum, thinking how justified would it be to lodge a bullet in the perpetrators this instant. It wasn't until Alex nudged her forward before she realised she was standing in the middle of a pathway, gawking. Almost attracted unnecessary attention to the group.

That moment, the two CIA agents found conviction in their connected gaze. Bonded by a silent agreement of a new crusade that they now believe in. Clearly aware that they were treading a dangerous line of emotional attachment, but could care less. They continued walking.

"What can we do?" Alex questioned, a newfound resolve in his tone. The empathy in their voices was clear as day.

"Accomplish our mission and put an end to Barkov's cruelty forever."

They agreed, forever it is. Hopefully this time, forever truly meant... forever.

The second part of their mission was easier, for Alex. As a man, he could use his cover to deliver cinder blocks into sensitive areas that she couldn't enter. While he had the easy way out, she climbed along the structures to reach the chopper she had to destroy. They managed to plant the C4 charges without alerting any guards.

Farah, Alex, and Alexis regrouped shortly in a safe zone, away from hostiles. "Blow the charges."

"Fire in the hole." Sharp bursts of explosion sounded without delay, the acrid smell of smoke penetrating their senses. Sirens immediately went off, and soon, majority of the military started pouring in to the source.

"It worked, multiple trucks heading in," Alexis reported, crouching behind a metal structure that concealed her. "Let's wait for them to pass."

The overwhelming trucks of soldiers played to their advantage as they crawled underneath their vehicles to escape. Escaping right under their nose, but not before leaving parting gifts of explosives under the engine. Their seemingly impossible escape was quick, under and out. The hardest part was over.

Just as they ran into an alley, they were spotted by an unexpected group of soldiers.

"Shit! Go! Get back!" Farah yelled and they pivoted immediately to bolt out of the alley. Farah flung her explosive-filled backpack in the soldiers' direction and detonated it in a desperate act, blowing their civilian cover. The sharp shrill of explosion attracted more soldiers to their positions.

They followed Farah and ran into the opposite direction, snaking along buildings in attempts to avoid the sprays of bullets. A slight burn in Alexis' arm temporarily slowed her down until Alex pulled her forward, yelling at her to keep running.

Another truck of soldiers skidded to a stop from their left, "We're getting boxed in!"

"I'm going to blow it! Right, go right!" More explosives went off at close range, causing an irritatable ringing in their ears. They expertly manoeuvred in and out of buildings, successfully evading the soldiers.

"Holy shit!"

"You're telling me! Farah, I sure as hell hope you have a plan!" Alexis replied, ignoring the intensified burn in her left arm and leapt out a window.

A putrid, horrifying smell of decaying corpses punched all the air out of their lungs as Farah unlatched a locked gate. At least a dozen bodies were casually littered across the dying grass, accompanied by flies and maggots.

"Farah, what the hell is this?" Alex spat in disgust.

"This is a damn massacre..." She almost couldn't believe what she was staring at – a mass grave. Only Barkov didn't even have the decency to bury the dead. The fire in her heart only burned bigger.

"More of Barkov's war crimes." Their ears perked at the sound of foreign soldiers conversing in the building ahead. "They're coming. Get down. Hide your guns, there are too many."

All of them dropped onto the ground, arms twisted to imitate the dead bodies. Alexis took a deep breath and held it, lying deadly still. Just she shut her eyes, her gaze averted to the decaying body of a child right where she laid. The image remained etched in her mind even with her eyes pinched tight, the outline of it was something she would never forget. A new unwanted memory that would join the other collections of horrifying scenes she witnessed in her years. 

A god damn child. Caught into someone else's war. 

She was the last in line, behind Alex and Farah. The gradual softer footsteps against the rustling of grass suggested most of the men moved forward.

A pained scream almost escaped from her lips when one of the soldiers accidentally stepped on her left arm, the full weight of his step nearly crushing her bones. He laughed, chattering in his native language about how this bitch got in the way.

"Alexis, what the hell happened?" Alex frantically whispered over the comms.

"Bastard almost damn near broke my arm. I'm fine." She winced, crawling up to catch up to them. 

Farah and Alex eliminated the remaining three soldiers on guard. "Quick, get up this ladder, the tunnels are just up ahead!"

She braved through the piercing pain and climbed the ladder, refusing to let Alex examine her injuries. Her spitfire personality mumbled a 'we can bitch about it later' as she went up. Well aware of her stubborn nature, he suppressed a sigh and only said, "Stay in front of me, I'm not asking."

Alexis obliged, truthfully too lazy for a debate. They hopped over a stone wall and grinned as more air reinforcements rushed to take their bait. Another left turn later, the safehouse was finally in their sights.

The front door, however, was wide open. "Stop! Shit, Tariq's door is open."

"Where's Tariq?"

"Dead. He would never abandon his post."

A pull of sorrow tugged at Alexis' heartstrings, unable to fathom a fraction of how Farah even felt. Although they were both soldiers, Alexis could never begin to understand how it felt to lose people she cared about every day. It only deepened the amount of respect she had for Farah. Weapons raised, they scoured their surroundings before entering the empty safehouse.

"Clear! Let's head down, get to Hadir..."

"You lost good people today," Alex said sincerely, sharing a look with Farah.

There was a look of longing in the commander's eyes as she stared at the now empty guard post, but it disappeared quickly as it came. "That is the cost of this war. Now, let's take Barkov's airbase so their deaths are not in vain."

"We're in for a hell of a fight."

"So are they. Hadir has a plan."

Alexis nodded at their statements, earnestness in her words. "We'll get them, Farah."

Alex halted the overly eager agent with a raised eyebrow. He climbed down the ladder first. When it was her turn, he grabbed her legs and jerked downwards, causing her good arm to slip from the ladder bars.

She fell right into his waiting embrace, hands on her waist to slowly settle her down. With her injured arm, she punched into his chest as though to prove a point.

"I know that's revenge for this afternoon," She said with a mischievous glint, thinking back to earlier when she angered him with her poor joke. She patted his shoulder teasingly and headed into the dark tunnels, nursing her sore arm. The tunnels echoed with her words. "Never pegged you for a petty fool, Alex."

"Maybe I'm just caring for my best friend. Where's the gratitude?" In complete darkness, she felt herself being lifted off the ground.

With an arm under her knees and another supporting her back, Alex begged her to stop thrashing about and promised he would let her down before they entered the light. He knew her belief about being a strong independent woman, and how much she hated sympathy tossed her way in moments of weakness – especially when she was injured. But anything he could do to ease the pain off his best friend, he would.

"You can shove that gratitude up your ass, Alex." She stopped fighting him, head resting on his muscular chest. Since nobody could witness her weakness in these dark tunnels, she briefly allowed herself to relax for a split moment.

"Starting to reconsider if I can live without you, Lexi."

Farah followed behind the bickering pair with a knowing smile.

a/n: hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. masterlist here. want to be tagged? let me know!

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 12 - A Well Deserved Break

Another chapter for you guys today! I've been thinking about getting more art done for this story, but I have it on good authority that my words paint the perfect picture! This chapter actually had me really nervous as I went over it, but hopefully, it's good! Let me know what you guys think, and let's get right into this slower paced chapter!

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North Korea had been defeated, their leadership killed, and their nuclear weapons captured. But the war was far from over. US troops had pushed far into the country, almost right to China's doorstep. But the Chinese had anticipated this and had heavily upgraded the defenses on their border with the country, constructing the most powerful fortifications in existence. It would be hell to push through, but when the time came US forces would break through those defenses. A staging area right at China's door was a major victory so early in the war, but the country was still fit to fight. Chinese ships and troops were all over the Pacific, and they could still strike almost anywhere.

However, right now, Heroes was taking a break after striking such a savage blow for China. The typhoon had landed near Mt Fuji, and Alex and JayJay were sitting in chairs out on the deck of the ship, watching the sunset over the mountain. The two ate Japanese cuisine and drank tea from a local shop as they watched the beautiful colors in the sky.

"I've always wanted to visit Japan," JayJay said between bites "such a beautiful country"

"Very advanced too." Alex responded, munching on a chopstick full of sushi rice "and not just technology wise, they have all sorts of cool little gizmos and tricks around the country"

"What do you mean?"

"Like a lot of Japanese toilets have a sink built into the top. So the water that you use to wash your hands can then be used to flush the toilet"

"Oh, that's environmentally friendly"

"It's those cool little tricks that I really enjoy" Alex sipped some tea "and as you can clearly see, the beauty of the country is astounding.

"Such a beautiful sunset, can you take a picture of me with it?"

The wolf handed Alex her phone and struck a pose a few feet away.

"Oh, it's prettier now" Alex joked, lining up the shot, prompting the wolf to chuckle and blush slightly as the captain took a couple of pictures.

"Hopefully these are good"

JayJay looked through the pictures before thanking her friend.

"I'm glad to finally get a break"

"Same, I couldn't handle endless combat"

"Here's to a job well done in Korea," Alex said, holding up his teacup, prompting JayJay to clink her own cup against his. "We eliminated a rogue state that has been a problem for decades, struck a decisive blow against the enemy, and freed so many people"

"I feel great, knowing that I had a hand in helping all those people"

"Based on reports, we're taking in and caring for a lot of North Korean citizens that have been imprisoned and mistreated"

"Alex, remember how I was depressed when the Chinese blew up that aircraft carrier in Guam? You were right, I just had to keep going. And now, I've been able to make an amazing difference in the world. I couldn't have done it without you"

"We'll be doing a lot more for people once we make a move on China. The country has done a lot of bad things, oppression of many certain groups, censoring large parts of media, the list goes on. It will be another major accomplishment to help those people as well"

"You know I'm ready to assist you anytime, anywhere"

"Also give yourself more credit, it's not just me doing all this work. Your holding your own on the battlefield, and your a great and talented individual to have on this team"

"Thank you, that means a lot," the wolf said, putting her hand on Alex's shoulder.

The captain gently squeezed her hand. "I'm glad to hear you feel better"

000

Nick, Judy, Jack, and Skye spent a lot of time together, watching movies, performing daily tasks, or just chatting. Today was different though, as Skye and Judy were in the shooting range keeping their skills sharp for the next combat situation. Nick and Jack were off doing something else, with Judy suspecting it would involve pawpsicles. Toothdee headed down to the range to test her skills and revived a warm greeting from the 2 mammals already there.

What made this shooting range advanced was its holographic targets, which removed the need for actual physical targets that would degrade over time. Also, it allowed for easy customization of training programs.

"So how do you guys know each other?" Toothdee asked, selecting a training program and checking her rifle.

"Well, Nick and Jack were friends as kits" Judy explained, shooting a target down range with her tranquilizer pistol "then later on the 4 of us started working together as part of an effort to establish a link between the ZPD & ZIA. That's how we all got acquainted."

"And since then we've been inseparable," Skye said, finishing her friend's sentence.

"I'm glad to have ZIA & ZPD operatives on this team, it promotes better connectivity," Toothdee said, engaging some targets downrange. "Is it just me or does Alex seem more distant lately?"

"What do you mean?" Judy asked.

"I can't put my finger on it, but he seems different with regards to our counterparts. Like something about them changed him. He's almost like... more aggressive, more ruthless. And between you guys and me, I'm worried about how we have evil versions of ourselves killing people out there"

"He seems fine to me, but I wouldn't know," Skye said "but it's possible that he's in a way upset that there's a dark version of him, after all, you just said you were worried about the same thing"

"Yeah, I am, but..." she trailed off, unable to put what she was thinking into words, leaving Skye and Judy wondering what was gonna come next. "...maybe I'm just overreacting. But I think it would be important to make sure we stay warriors for peace and justice and don't become the dark villains we hope to destroy."

The rabbit and fox nodded in agreement.

"Now then, how about a friendly competition?" Toothdee asked, pressing a few buttons on the console to link Judy's firing lane, Skye's lane, and her own. Point indicators appeared above the lanes of all 3 heroes, who raised their weapons as the timer counted down.

3... 2... 1...

000

Haida and Retsuko had left the typhoon and were visiting their home city of Tokyo. Kion and Jasiri had also come along, wanting to see the sights, and figuring there were no better guides than people who actually lived in the city.

The hyena and red panda had shown the couple all sorts of interesting areas around the city, such as a local art museum, and a scenic walk with cherry blossom trees. Kion described the walk as romantic, with the other mammals agreeing. As such, the 2 couples had spent almost half an hour making out, before they decided to leave after receiving some weird looks.

The group had also visited the Tokyo sky tree, which was a massive tower with a stunning view from the observation deck. Jasiri had spent a little too much money on the metal viewing scopes implanted in the deck. However she did manage to catch some good views of , and Retsuko had directed the hyena to view her apartment. She had even taken a look at the typhoon, spotting Alex and JayJay sitting outside on the ship's deck.

Tokyo was a city with less of a human presence than other locations. It wasn't out of the ordinary to see non-humans across the planet, but humans did greatly outnumber other sentient species on earth. Tokyo reminded Kion & Jasiri of their home city of Zootopia, one of many places where it was rare to see humans. It almost felt like a metropolis they knew & loved.

Now, as the day was ending and night was falling, the city's lights became alive, transforming Tokyo into a display of color. A light drizzle of rain poured down from the sky as Retsuko lead the group to a karaoke bar, a place that she and Haida knew all too well. Entering the building, an attendant lead them to a room Retsuko requested, before taking an order for food and drinks.

Retsuko and Haida got something with alcohol in it, while Kion and Jasiri opted for tea.

"Come on Kion, sing something" Jasiri encouraged, trying to get her lion to sing something. "They have songs in English"

"Oh, I can't sing," Kion said, scrolling through the songs on a tablet, and thinking he would die from embarrassment if he tried singing. "Retsuko, why don't you try something?"

He handed the microphone to the red panda, who then typed '9091-89' in on the tablet.

She took a deep breath as the music began to build, before screaming out as loud as she could into the mic.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Kion and Jasiri covered their ears, while Haida just stared wide-eyed at the red panda. Kion worried that the glasses with their drinks would shatter. Jasiri tried to say something to her mate, but the lion could only see her lips moving.

Meanwhile, Haida just continued to watch his red panda as she belted out frustration in her favorite song.

000

While Heroes was taking a well-deserved break after their victory in North Korea, their counterparts had done something much sinister. They had just eliminated one of the powerful individuals who had afforded them their prominent positions in the Chinese military, meaning now they were sovereign figures. They no longer had to listen to the plans and demands of the meterex leader who had found them, and the person they had just killed.

The battle wasn't even that tough, they severely outnumbered their enemy, who was in a weakened state. It was almost too easy filling him with holes and driving swords through his body. Now they were heading back to their ship, where they could plan the next phase of their operations.

"What kind of name is 'Dark Oak?'" Toothdee's counterpart laughed, her comment almost a way of spitting on the grave of the meterex they had slaughtered a few minutes prior.

"You mean what kind of name was 'Dark Oak" Alex's counterpart said, "he and his meterex failed to conquer this world once before, but we will succeed where they failed."

"You know I have to say that's a nice addition to your arsenal," Dark Eris said, pointing to Alex's wrist.

"Thank you," the dark warrior said, looking at his wrist, which was clad in a black gauntlet with an integrated grappling hook. The hook allowed him to pull enemies or objects in from afar, quickly bringing them within striking distance. It was also capable of pulling panels off walls and tearing apart objects.

Arriving back at the Black Typhoon, the group made their way into the command room after stashing their weapons in the armory.

"Toothdee, get me a status report," Dark Alex said, to which his friend obliged, lighting the room up with screens displaying information.

"North Korea is lost." Dark Toothdee said, looking over some screens "but this is only a small victory for the United States."

"Are our tactics working?"

"Yes, with no real front line, and no defined separation of territory, we will keep the US on their toes. Guessing where we're gonna attack next, and eventually wearing them down. We are still able to get our troops to most positions in the Pacific, and strike at places the United States won't expect."

"However we do have to acknowledge that they are on our doorstep now, are our defenses ready?"

"Our defenses are ready to hold back any assault, and reports suggest the US won't attack won't attack. In fact, bombing campaigns and ground-based incursions have led them to pull back somewhat, meaning a large area of North Korea is without a military presence. And the US has taken in many civilians, meaning there are fewer people in general."

"Perfect looks like they failed at establishing a beachhead close too China, but we should still be on guard for attacks from North Korea. However, it's time to strike back at the United States. Laval, is your fleet ready?"

The lion stepped forward and spoke. "Yes, the new vessels have been seamlessly integrated into our battle formations, we're ready to get back out there."

"Kion? Are your teams ready?"

The other lion began his explanation "Our gear is ready & the plan is set, all that's left is to put it into action"

"Brilliant, I say we couldn't have picked a better time for a war" Dark Alex said "the political, economic, and military climate was perfect"

"Tensions have been growing between the nations for a while now, it was obviously going to erupt in war," Dark Toothdee said, swiping through some data pages on a tablet. "Growing tension as China expands is territory & grows its military. Not to mention the US leading more towards a policy of isolationism, as China strives forward in terms of its economy, & its environmental protection efforts."

The dark warrior paused & looked out a nearby window as he collected his thoughts.

“The time when the United States is the world's dominant power is at an end. A new era is emerging. You have your orders, go forth and enact our will!"

The dark characters filed out of the room, ready to enforce their machinations upon the United States & Heroes.

"Let's show the world what we can really do."

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Hopefully, everyone liked that forboding scene at the end! A nice peek into the mind of the enemy. This update was a pain to post for some reason as well. But this was a nice, slower paced chapter, but next time there will be more action for all you thrill seekers! Please leave a review and have a great day!

#my writing #fanfic #Alex final wars #Alex final wars 2 #Alex final wars 2: dark alex #dark alex #Alex Boehm #JayJay #Toothdee #Haida #Retsuko #Jasiri Outlander #Kion Pridelander #Nick Wilde #Judy Hopps #Skye Winter #Jack Savage #action adventure #zootopia fanfiction #Zootopia #the lion guard #the lion guard fanfiction #agressive retsuko #agressive Retsuko fanfiction #zoophobia #zoophobia fanfiction #creative writing

[bleedingcoffee42]

Eureka AU- Part 8

My weekend mini-nano is coming to an end, what a ride. 16k words on a make-it-up-as-i-go fic. Fun as hell, wish I could do this every day.   But for now, outta writing time.   Fear not, I’ll finish this week but I’ll sure as shit leave it for now as a cliffhanger.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

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Roy sat by Riza's side after Knox relocated her to Al's lab under much protest, however the medical equipment was easier to move than Al's.   Roy went over all the theories and data about a dozen times and eventually gave the green light on Project Hawk's Eye.   He told Knox he would be the one to inject the syringe full of nanites into her IV, that was not going to be on the doctor if this all went wrong.

If he lost her, he didn't really care about the repercussions of everything coming down on him.   He'd stave it off as long as he could in order to go after Raven and root out his accomplices in this theft of relics and trail of murder, but he had no misconceptions about it all catching up to him.   He'd step down from the head of the facility first, have someone appointed to take his place that had it's best interests in mind, and spend his money and limited freedom on hunting everyone down.   He prayed it don't come to that.

“We're ready.”  Al said.   “I injected a few into myself to test it and they are operating as they should.”

“What the fuck Al?”  Ed gasped.  

“Like you weren't going to do the same thing.”  Al mumbled.

“I'm not the genius who can control the little bastards!”

“Which is exactly why I had to do it.”  Al replied. “They're my creation, I can't ask someone to test out what I create if I am not willing to do so myself. Especially not Hawkeye.”

Ed walked over with the syringe and handed it to Mustang.   He almost didn't want to let go of it, scared it would be the cause of her demise.   Scared because if it didn't kill her, the lack of another option would.

“It's OK Ed.”  Roy said and took the syringe over to the IV line and paused as he took the cap off the needle.   He looked over at Riza and bit his lip.   Not the kind of shot she expected to be in danger of dying from, he was certain of that.   So he stopped costing more time and injected it slowly so there was no chance of clumping the microscopic robots anywhere.   Then, syringe empty, he retracted it and put the cap back on and set it down to wait;  Wait and watch her vitals for a spike to tell him this was the wrong answer.

“Ok, I have data.”

Roy looked over to Al.  “And?”

“I've sent them on a mission to disperse and target anything with their similar profile.  I already have data coming back.”   Al said and put it up on the screen for everyone to see.   “Well the good news is it's biological and not nanotech.”

Roy took a deep breath.  The Elrics were great at mentioning things after the fact.

“Money can't buy you, Al.”  Ed said appreciatively.  “You're the only one this good.”

Marcoh waved his hand at the screen. “Can you send this information to my tablet?”

“Already on it's way.”  Al said.   “I have them targeting and following the virus.   That way we don't waste time when you give me the modifications.”

Roy sat down beside Riza and held her hand again.   No change was good news at this stage and he could feel Knox hovering and waiting for something to happen.   Marcoh was scribbling loudly on some paper, preferring to work out things the 'old school' way instead of taking advantage of all the technological advances around him.   Roy wanted to help, wanted to be able to use his knowledge and education for something but he couldn't help here. All he could do was physically be here and comfort his wife in a way he hoped she could feel, perhaps there was something to that joke of theirs about using him for his body after all.

He turned his attention to thinking about how much Riza had changed his life.   They got off on the wrong foot and they continued to meet in the middle on everything, mainly because she wouldn't get out of his way.   She blocked him every time and forced him to compromise.   The resolution always produced good results and finally he came to her with a peace offering of dinner.   The town needed her, she was someone he had grown to respect and in a few months of fighting with her he had to admit he looked forward to her barging into his office telling him off.

He never expected her to say 'yes'.   It was just his charismatic womanizing facade coming out and trying to charm her, but she had said 'yes' in the most hostile and satisfied way possible that made him question if he had in fact been played.   He owed her dinner for all the times she had to spend time off duty cleaning up his scientist's mistakes.     It better be expensive too.  He countered the best he could, saying and expensive dinner require proper attire and a dress uniform wasn't going to cut it.   And her smile, god she smiled like she was the Queen of Hearts and he was about to get decapitated.  At that moment he sat back in his chair and realized that it might not be so horrible to lose this chess match of theirs after all.  

When she did show up for that promised dinner at his house, insisting on picking him up because he was a terrible driver who never paid his reckless driving tickets, he opened the door to the most amazing sight he had ever laid eyes on.   Riza Hawkeye stood on his doorstep like an angel, setting sun behind her with a glow of the glory of God radiating in the background.   A long gown that looked like it was made for her and probably was.   She had made friends in Eureka, certainly someone like Alex Armstrong had told her he would make her the perfect dress to stop Roy's fucking heart as soon as he laid eyes on it.

And that it did.   However it was less the dress and more the woman wearing it.   Something about how she owned that presence and could be wrapped in satin and lace and not lose herself in any of it.   There was more to her than he gave her credit for, more than the hard ass Lieutenant who became their disciplinarian Sheriff.   More than the soldier who was quick to order everyone around when the situation went to hell.  More that he desperately wanted to find out about.   It was more than she bargained for because she was not expecting him to be the one cooking her dinner at his house.

Checkmate.

It didn't phase her, she entered his house as if it was a royal palace and not a suburban home.   He had his best tux on, carefully planned and cooked four courses and dessert and served them all by candlelight in his dining room.  There was no hostility as they both silently agreed to a truce for the night.   They talked about work, since that was always the adventure of the week, and accidents they could now laugh about.  

And she had the most incredible laugh.  

Night turned into morning as they relaxed on the couch and dared to show each other their personal side.    Her caring for the men of her command, how much she missed being in the field because of this special assignment and how much she was actually enjoying being the Sheriff of this small town.  The people were special, she liked having someone to protect.   He admitted he wanted to do anything to keep this town safe, to keep the people free to work and funded to do so.   Something he never openly admitted to anyone.   She eventually said it was getting too late and it was time to leave, he asked her to stay.   To his surprise, she accepted his offer.

He wondered why she accepted any offers of his,  especially the first one to take the job as Sheriff of Eureka.

Now he couldn't help but wonder if she was deliberately sent here by her commander to get her away from her men.   Exiled because she had seen too much and had too much integrity to just forget it happened.    There was no reason that a qualified officer like herself would be sent here to the middle of nowhere to babysit scientist unless she was someone who could be counted on to be in his pocket.   She'd never be that, not for Raven.  Exiled until he had a chance to figure out how to erase the evidence of his actions.

But Roy had been the one to pick her from a field of candidates.   That was what bothered him, Raven had to know what he was looking for in a choice for Sheriff.  He had to rig the choices so there was only one option.  Roy wanted to drive down to the Hotel right now and beat the truth out of him, beat the life out of him.   Ensure he didn't get away with this.  

“I have it.” Marcoh announced. He walked over to Al's computer and said, “Bring up the diagram. I'll show you want to rearrange.   Then you can program them to eat the other virus.”

“They're robots.” Al replied.  “They don't eat.”

“They just ate several billion dollars worth of military super soldier contact lens.” Ed reminded him.  “Just let them tear it apart.”

“And lose their form?  They're currently bonded as a virus.   You want me to release them and let them float in the bloodstream?   They're too tiny.” Al replied.

“Strangle the virus then.”  Ed said.  

“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.” Roy said, quoting Sun Tzu.   Everyone went silent, he must have sounded authoritative even if he felt lost.   “Make your nanites more attractive to the virus than the cells it's attacking.  Make it look like the original Xerses virus instead of the watered down immunity in her system.     Let them latch on to the nanites so we can tell the robots to leave her body and take the virus with them.   Riza can't be the battlefield, she's put up enough of a fight on her own.  Let's draw the enemy out.”

#fic #royai #eureka au

[jaskiers-sweetkiss]

Sunset Swerve - Part 4

Pairings: Luke x OC

Word Count: 3.7K

Warnings: none? 

A/N: This one’s a bit longer but now we’re officially through episode 3! As always, let me know what you think and message me if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

Part 3  Masterlist

___

“We have to do something to help Julie with Flynn,” Jordan said firmly when they landed in the garage. “It’s our fault she’s in this mess.”

“I still don’t understand why she can’t just tell her about us,” Luke said and Jordan sighed.

“Seeing ghosts, real or not, isn’t really ever perceived as a one-hundred percent good thing, especially when you’ve just lost a parent.” She explained quietly and Luke nodded, suddenly unable to meet her eyes.

When she turned to look at the other guys she was met with a curious stare from Alex as if he was trying to figure out what was going on between them.

“How’re you holding up?” She deflected, trying to get away from his scrutiny.

“Not great, actually,” Alex admitted beginning to pace in front of the couch where Luke and Reggie had plopped down.

Jordan crossed the room to join them, perching on the arm of the couch.

“I think he’s practicing his model strut,” Reggie speculated in a whisper and Jordan rolled her eyes.

“He’s so nervous it’s making me nervous,” Luke admitted.

“Alright Alex, spill,” Jordan addressed the blond and he stopped to stand in front of them.

“Okay, look, you guys know I don’t handle change well,” he spoke, waving his hands around anxiously. “Alright? Death? That was a change. Okay, then we became ghosts, alright? Another change. And- and now we can be seen whenever we play with Julie. Big fucking change!”

“Yeah but, bro, it was a good change!” Luke exclaimed. “With Julie we can play on stage again and be the band we never got to be! C’mon, you gotta be down for that.”

“I mean, yeah, who wouldn’t be?” Alex gulped, “I just… I wanna figure out why.”

“Forget why!” Jordan elbowed the brunet and he cursed, standing up to move away from her. “I say we invite Julie to join Sunset Curve.”

“Yeah, totally!” Reggie gasped, standing up as well. “I mean, like, think about it! With a new lead singer, this band would be legendary.”

“Hey! I’m our lead singer,” Luke pouted and Jordan snorted, earning a glare from the boy.

“Dude, that girl has the voice of an angel and she can make us visible,” Reggie explained, “Without her, we’re just elevator music.”

“I know, but you don’t gotta be so mean about it,” Luke whined, completely ignoring Alex who had begun pacing again.

“You deserve it,” Jordan quipped, receiving another glare from the boy.

“And we’re on the runway again!” He exclaimed, turning to see Alex’s pacing.

“Okay, I’m sorry, alright? I just…” Alex sighed, stopping his pacing. “I gotta go clear my head.”

He made a beeline for the door, attempting to grab the handle but his hand kept going through it.

“Dude you’re a ghost, just poof out,” Reggie said and Jordan leaned over to hit his arm.

“Don’t tell me how to ghost!” Alex cried before poofing away.

Jordan sighed when neither of the boys moved to do anything.

“I’m gonna go make sure he’s okay.” She said decisively, ignoring the boys’ arguments that he was fine as she poofed out.

When he had found her in the graveyard the day before he had said something about going someplace familiar, so she poofed to the first place she thought of: the Orpheum.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out he wasn’t there but she decided to wander around Hollywood to look. Sunset Curve had spent a lot of time in the area, playing gigs and just hanging out. She had stopped to scrutinize the costume of a fake Marilyn Monroe on the Walk of Fame when she spotted him. She immediately started walking towards him but stopped once she noticed that he wasn’t alone. He was talking to some long-haired skater boy and she silently awed when she saw the look on his face. Not wanting to interrupt his serendipitous meeting and comforted by the fact that he wasn’t alone, she poofed away before he could spot her.

She’d tried to poof to Reggie, wanting to tell him about the skater boy but she was immediately distracted upon arrival.

“What the hell guys?” She asked rhetorically, “Did you seriously learn nothing from yesterday?”

Once again Luke and Reggie were in Julie’s room, the latter once again laying on his bed. However, what Luke was doing was considerably worse. The boy was sat on the floor with Julie’s dream box open in front of him as he rifled through the pieces of paper.

“Did you not hear anything she said about boundaries?” The dark-haired girl huffed, attempting to close the dream box.

When her hand just went through the lid she plopped down in front of the box, pouting at her lack of ghostly abilities.

“This is perfect!” Luke gasped triumphantly, finally looking upon from the piece of paper in his hands. He jumped slightly when he noticed Jordan as if he had been so involved in whatever was on the paper that his brain hadn’t registered her presence. “Oh, hey Moss. When did you get back?”

Jordan raised her brows in surprise. “Wow, and I thought Reggie was the oblivious one.”

“Hey!” Reggie protested, sitting up on the bed only to be met with identically ‘come on’ looks from the ghosts on the floor. “Okay, fine, you’re right.”

“Anyway,” Luke redirected, sending one last side-eye at Reggie before addressing the room. “This poem would make killer song lyrics!”

“Ooh! Lemme see,” Reggie scrambled off the bed to lean over Luke. “Flying Solo. This looks great.” He mused.

“C’mon, we should start writing the melodies,” Luke said, poofing away to the garage, Reggie following suit but not before waving goodbye to Jordan who was still sitting on the ground. The girl dropped her disapproving look to smile at the boy before he disappeared.

She sat alone in the room for another minute before sighing and pushing herself off the carpet. She wandered through the house, searching for something to occupy her time now that all the guys were busy and Julie was at school. After a period of aimless wandering- time seemed to flow differently now that she was dead- she stumbled across a large bookshelf and paused. Jordan hadn’t read a book since ’95 but it had been one of her favorite pastimes after music. She browsed the selection of mostly unrecognizable title- of course plenty of hits had been published in the twenty-five years since she had passed- until she settled on a novel heralded as ‘The Next Harry Potter’ though she had no idea who Harry Potter was. The book was well worn as if it had been read many times and as far as Jordan was concerned, that was the tell-tale sign of a good book.

She pulled the blue-green book from the shelf, taking it with her as she poofed to the garage. The book showing endeavor had taken quite a bit of time as the books had kept falling through her ghost hands. Fortunately, none of the Molina’s had been home to hear the multiple thuds.

Despite the amount of time she had spent in the house, when she arrived in the studio Reggie and Luke were still stood around the piano working on their new song. Neither boy acknowledge her appearance- too immersed in their work- so she laid down on the couch and immersed herself in 2012 New York.

She wasn’t sure how long she’s laid there in silence, only that she’d reached Chapter 8: We Capture a Flag when her attention was finally drawn away. The guys had moved from writing to working it out on their instruments (which Jordan had selectively ignored because they wouldn’t listen to her anyway) when Julie got home from school.

“Guys! You’re not supposed to be out here playing alone,” she said, giving them her signature ‘are you serious?’ look.

“But we’re not alone,” Reggie explained as Luke came up to hold him from behind, “Because we always have each other!”

“Ugh,” Jordan groaned, rolling her eyes at their cheesiness.

“Agreed,” Julie quipped, smiling briefly at the ghost girl before moving to unplug both boys’ instruments from their amps.

“But we had the volume on level one!” Luke protested.

“But we rocked it on volume ten!” Reggie added, “Want us to play it again?”

“I really don’t think she does,” Luke whispered to the boy as Julie unplugged his amp, dropping the cord to the ground menacingly.

“We’ve actually been waiting for you to get home,” Luke changed directions, hoping to avoid the Latina’s wrath. “Okay, so, we have some pretty major news to tell you. We had a band meeting earlier and…” He pointed at Reggie who began a drumroll on his legs.

“We want you to join Sunset Curve! And no, you’re not dreaming,” The brunet exclaimed, looking very proud of himself.

Julie, however, looked less thrilled. “Oh.”

“Oh? That’s what you say when you get socks for Christmas, not when you get asked to join the most epic band ever!”

“Second most epic band,” Jordan spoke up from the couch where she had set aside her book momentarily to watch this unfold.

Luke glared at her while Julie began to explain herself.

“Sorry, I’m honored, but I can’t think about anything but Flynn right now. She’s still mad at me for lying, she hasn’t even texted me back!”

“Yeah, you’re in a tough spot,” Luke started, though clearly he wasn’t really considering what the girl had said, “So, you wanna join the band?”

“Read the room, dude.” Julie glared, turning to walk out of the garage.

“Way to be sincere doofus,” Jordan said harshly, returning to her book.

“Oh, come on!” Luke called, getting the girl to stop before the doors, “We need you and you need us because you need music! We found this poem that you wrote-“

“She’s gonna be pissed,” Jordan said in a sing-song voice, eyes trained on her book but clearly still listening.

“Reggie and I added this really cool melody to it. It sounds awesome!” Luke continued, ignoring Jordan.

“Where’d you find that?” Julie asked warily.

“Uh… definitely not in your dream box,” Luke lied, pulling Reggie in front of him to protect himself from Julie, clearly forgetting that she could just walk right through the ghost bassist.

“You went through my stuff?!” She shouted, quickly advancing on the guitarist while Reggie jumped out of the way.

“Told you,” Jordan muttered, though it was lost in the chaos of the room.

“I know, but-” Luke tried to excuse but was cut off by Reggie.  

“Yeah, we can do that now!” The dark-haired ghost responded, completely contradicting his bandmate.

“No! No you can’t! Boundaries!” Julie shouted, reaching across the piano towards Luke. “Give it back!”

“No!” Luke denied, climbing onto the piano bench. “You need to realize how insanely talented you are! Okay? Listen to this:

“If somebody hurts you, I’m gonna get hurt too, and my life my life would be real low, zero, flying solo.”

“Oh-Oh” Reggie echoed from behind Julie and Luke grinned at him before turning back to the girl in front of him.

“It’s a killer melody,” he said.

“I wrote that about Flynn when she was helping me with all my mom stuff,” Julie sighed. “I gotta go.”

“Hey! What about the band!” Luke called after her as she turned to leave again.

Oh, I almost forgot,” She spoke, turning back around and an excited look grew on Luke’s face. “Stay out of my room!”

“Yeah?” Luke called, running after her and sticking his head through the door, “We will if you join our band!”

“Idiot,” Jordan muttered, finally turning her full attention back to the book.

She did her best to ignore the shuffling around her as the boys moved about. She was mostly successful, managing to get in a full page of reading before Reggie poked the back of her hand and she pulled her attention away to glare at him.

“What do you want?” She groaned as she turned to look at the two boys who were now seated in front of the couch.

“So, you’re a girl,” Luke started and Jordan snorted.

“Very astute observation, Sherlock,” she quipped, turning back to her book with the intention of ignoring them completely.

“Just let me finish!”

“That’s what she said.”

“Jordan!” He whined, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Please?”

She sighed, closing the book and setting it down next to her as she swung her legs around to sit up on the sofa.

“Fine. Yes, I am a girl, what do you need?”

“We thought you might have some insight on what to do about Julie?” He said, though his unsureness made it sound like a question.

“She’s not going to even think about joining your band until she’s smoothed things over with Flynn. She’s her best friend and she means more to her than music does.”

“Woah. How’d you figure all that out?” Reggie asked, amazed.

“Girl code, man!” Luke answered, hitting Reggie’s chest.

“She’s literally said all of that to you within the last twenty-four hours,” Jordan said, staring at them with a look of pure disbelief. “There’s no ‘code’, you guys just don’t listen.”

“Okay, so how do we fix things with Julie and Flynn?” Luke said, selectively ignoring what she had just said.

“I hate to say it,” she sighed, “But you guys might already be on the right track with the song. Julie said she wrote the poem about Flynn, so maybe if she performs the song for her, Flynn’ll see how much their friendship means to her.”

“That’s a great idea!” Luke exclaimed and Jordan smirked, jokingly flipping her hair over her shoulder dramatically. “C’mon! Let’s get to work.”

Jordan moved to return to her reading when she noticed the brunet was staring pointedly at her.

“What do you need me for?”

“Well, Reggie and I can’t write the piano part.”

____

“So, when she says ‘deep-dish’, do you think she’s talking about pizza?” Reggie asked in all seriousness.

Jordan, who had kept playing the piano despite the other two ghosts dropping out, stopped playing then in shock.

“Dude,” she breathed, at this point in awe of the boy’s cluelessness.

It was just then that Alex decided to show up, poofing in right on top of the piano between Reggie and Luke.

“Oh! Hey man, where you been?” Reggie asked, immediately distracted from his previous question.

“Um, kinda everywhere,” Alex answered, “Yeah. No, I met a new ghost friend.”

“For real?” Reggie asked, amazed.

“Wait, cute skater boy was a ghost?” Jordan asked from behind them, brows raised in surprise.

“Yeah he- wait, how’d you know that?” He asked, turning around to peer at the girl behind the piano.

“Hm? Oh! I went to check on you after you left but when I found you, you had already found him so I just came back,” Jordan shrugged and Alex nodded.

“Yeah, anyway, he answered a ton of questions.”

“Like whether Julie’s gonna join the band or not?” Luke asked through the guitar pick he still held between his teeth.

“Uh… well we didn’t... didn’t really get to that,” Alex muttered, giving Luke a weird stare before turning back to Jordan and Reggie. “But, I think I know why we’re here. Okay? All ghosts have, like, unfinished business. So we have t do our unfinished business so that we can cross over.”

“Why would we do that?” Luke asked, immediately drawing everyone’s attention in a mix of shock and confusion.

“Some of us might actually want to cross over,” Jordan said crossly, frowning at the boy.

“I’m just saying, this is like our second chance. All we need to do is get Julie to play with us.” He explained and Reggie nodded.

“Not only can that girl sing, she can write too. Luke and I made a killer melody to one of her songs!” Jordan cleared her throat and Reggie blushed, adding on, “And Jordan helped too.”

“Oh… without your drummer, cool,” Alex mumbled as he looked over the song Luke had just handed him.

“Drumming is so ’90s,” Luke joked, clapping his friend lightly on the back. “We’re just gonna… stomp our feet now.”

“Okay. Well, you know what else is so ‘90s?” Alex responded, “Being rude. All right? Get woke, these are sensitive times.”

“Alex! Ow…” Luke whined quietly as Alex forcefully returned his notebook.

“I learned that from my ghost friend,” Alex whispered to Reggie and Jordan.

“What so they don’t say ‘fly’ anymore but they say ‘woke’?” Jordan muttered in a mix of confusion and distaste.

“‘Woke.’” Reggie repeated. “That’s a cool word, what does it mean?”

“No clue.”

Jordan chuckled lightly before noticing the petulant look on Luke’s face.

“Well, now that Alex is here maybe we can properly work on this song?” She proposed, “We gotta fix things with Julie and Flynn; we got her into this mess in the first place.”

The boys all nodded, Alex moving off the piano so they could all see each other. Fortunately, Luke and Reggie had already worked out most of their own parts and now all they needed were the piano and drum set. They got a good few minutes in working together, Alex drumming on the piano with his hands while Jordan played as quietly as possible, the four of them stopping every few lines to scribble in rhythms. They had the song just about finished when Julie burst into the garage.

“Grab your instruments, we need to rehearse the song.”

The four ghosts looked between themselves in confusion.

“I need to prove to Flynn that you’re ghosts but we only have a half-hour to rehearse, let’s go!” She exclaimed, clapping her hands together as if to say ‘chop-chop”.

The guys began to scramble around the room getting everything set up, and Jordan handed Julie her piano part before retiring to the couch once more. She laid back down, grabbing her book and flipping to the page she had left off on while the new Sunset Curve began to rehearse their new hit.

The half-hour flew by quickly and before they knew it Flynn was knocking on the door of the garage.

“Thanks for coming,” Julie smiled as she opened the doors. “We just wanted to rehearse the song so it was perfect, which it’s not, but whatever.”

Jordan put her book down, wanting to watch what happened.

“No, if I’m gonna hear a song from your imaginary ghost band, it needs to be perfect.” Flynn objected, “So get back in there, all of you. You too.” She said, pointing around the space at the imaginary ghosts.

“Wow, she was way off,” Reggie said and the rest of the ghosts shook their heads. “I’m over here!!”

“They’re not out here,” Julie informed Flynn with a chuckle, gesturing the girl inside the garage.

“Oh, I know.”

“Alright guys, you ready?” Julie asked, looking back towards the guys who all gave thumbs up.

“Um, Julie?” Reggie spoke up, “Can you move Flynn? I need room to, y’know, rock out.”

Julie laughed but complied with his request, ushering Flynn to one of the chairs in front of the setup.

“If you’ll notice, there’s no equipment that can create a hologram. Feel free to look around the room.” Julie spoke, taking her place behind the keyboard.

She took a deep breath before addressing her friend, “The guys took a poem I wrote about you and put it to music.”

“Aww! I wish I didn’t have to talk to your dad after this,” Flynn sassed and Jordan laughed.

“I like her.” She said, and Julie glanced her way with a smile.

“It’s called Flying Solo, I hope you like it,” Julie introduced the song before beginning to play.

Jordan could see the song working on Flynn right from the start, the girl clearly vibing with the music and lyrics. At the risk of sounding cheesy, she felt like she was watching their friendship mend itself.

Flynn screamed when the chorus hit and the guys joined in, immediately becoming visible. Julie stepped away from the piano to crouch in front of her best friend, singing the next verse directly to her before pulling her up to rock out with the guys for the chorus. Jordan tried to hide the bouncing of her own leg to the beat, not wanting to admit she too was vibing with Luke’s song. Though, the boy had clearly noticed, moving over to the mic stand that had been left next to the couch. He perched on the end, making sure to smirk superiorly at her and she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms stubbornly.

As she sang, Julie guided Flynn around the room to each of the boys, ending with Reggie as they reached a break in the song, the guys continued to play lightly in order to stay visible. Flynn experimentally stuck her hand through Reggie before retracting it quickly in alarm.

“Weird right?” Reggie spoke and Flynn gasped.

“They’re ghosts!” She exclaimed and Julie nodded.

“Uh, we prefer musician spirits,” Alex corrected jokingly and Reggie nodded, pointing affirmatively at the drummer.

“Where’s the other one?” Flynn asked, peering around the room, “The girl?”

“Oh, Jordan’s on the couch. I honestly don’t know why she’s not playing.” Julie turned to look at the girl in question and Jordan shrugged.

“Not my song, not my band.”

“Hey, Julie?” Luke called, redirecting the living girls’ attention. “Does this mean you’re joining our band?”

“Actually, I think you’re joining her band,” Flynn interjected matter-of-factly.

“I’m gonna go with what she said,” Julie grinned, slinging an arm around her best friend. “You too Jordan,” she added, gesturing to the dark-haired girl.

Jordan smiled brightly at the invite, poofing behind the piano as the band started back up.

Julie and Flynn immediately moved over to her as she picked up the piano part. It felt nice to rock out with the girls and it felt even more gratifying when the guys dropped out, leaving only the piano part and Julie’s voice as she sang to her friend.

The four ghosts exchanged smiles with each other, Luke and Jordan to high off the performance to care about their rivalry.

“Still wanna talk to my dad?” Julie asked when the song had finished.

“No, I’m good,” Flynn responded and the girls hugged, the four ghosts vanishing from sight.

Part 5

___

Taglist: @oopsiedoopsie23 @meangirlsx @angryknightstatesmantrash @onlygetaway

#jatp #julie and the phantoms #julie and the himbos #jatp fic #luke patterson fic #luke patterson x oc #luke jatp #jatp luke #luke x oc #sunset curve #alex mercer #jatp alex #reggie peters #jatp reggie #julie molina #flynn jatp #jatp flynn #willie jatp #jatp willie #willex #flying solo #jatp 1x03

[thevampsupdate]

What is The Future of Men?

Yesterday at The Festival of New Masculinity, a brilliant panel discussed a current time of flux for men, and what positive things may lie ahead.

“You wouldn’t have got an event like this, with all these people on a Sunday night, two or three years ago, there’s just no way…”

No way at all, but now things are indeed changing. James Scroggs, the Chair of Trustees of CALM, was right to marvel and we can scarcely believe how these events at The Festival of New Masculinity are going. One, just how well attended they are, but also the level of honesty and spirit of emotional sharing that is emanating from the stages and being reciprocated by the audiences. Discussions around masculinity and male mental health are vital topics which are now truly beginning to take hold all around the world, and no matter what side you’re on in some of these discussions, the fact we’re even talking about them means deconstructions of what it means to be a man are occurring and help is becoming more likely for the men who need it.

At the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen last night such ideas were discussed in depth by a panel of James McVey from The Vamps, presenter and musician George Shelley, Deputy CEO of the Diana Award, Alex Holmes, and CALM’s James Scroggs, The event was hosted by author Poorna Bell, who guided the group through conversations on how masculinity is changing, what people can do to help men in crisis, and the new ways in which boys are now being taught at schools. You can read some highlights from the discussion below, and you’ll probably agree with us in hoping that the future of men is exhibited by the fine people up on that stage.

Thanks to the panel, and the audience, and everyone who made it happen, particularly the SuperCulture folk, Freedom Brewery, and our partners, new grooming range SEB MAN, who’s messaging around ‘undefinable’ men are exemplary for the way brands should be working. Thanks all x

On the way masculinity is changing

George Shelley: “I still feel like men today have to follow stereotypes. Provide, protect and procreate – that’s men’s To Do list. I grew up in an all-female household, where I went to bed with a hug and had all this open love. Yet I go to my Dad’s now, and he’s a single parent, bring up four little boys, and I’m seeing my Dad being both the dominant female and  the male – it’s interesting seeing how my dad is in their lives, and how he has evolved.

James Scroggs: “I look back at my childhood in a good middle-class family but where there was a divide between my father, who was the stoic provider. He had a pretty horrid childhood from what I can work out, but he wouldn’t talk about it, it was an unmentionable part of his life – he decided he wanted to be the hunter-provider, the classic male stereotype. But on the other hand there was a massive matriarchal presence from my mother. And I look at the world now and think all those things are getting really nicely jumbled up. Matriarchy is shifting, and I think the patriarchy is being broken down bit by bit and the world is beginning to work out that actually both can play a fundamental part in how we live. I have a 13 year-old boy and I cannot wait for him to be at the age where he starts to redefine what power structures look like, what earnings look like, what role he has to play with a male or female partner, because I think it’s all up for grabs. And I think a session like this is a real sign of that.”

James McVey: “When I was 14 or 15 and started making music, I was slightly strange, I had long hair, a pierced nose, and I didn’t really fit into a certain group. I had friends but when I started writing openly emotional songs about girls it wasn’t received particularly well. I grew up in an area of Dorset where it was all about rugby and football, and I liked football, but I liked girls more! But I’d sing about girls and was ostracised for that – people didn’t understand why a 15 year old boy was being openly emotional rather than playing rugby. Now, it’s not so much of an issue. There’s millions of kids on YouTube talking about how they feel – there’s been a shift. As a man I don’t’ feel ashamed as my emotions anymore. In the last 10 or 15 years there’s been a big change.”

Alex: “You spend 11,000 hours of your life at school so it’s a huge amount of time that affects the person you are today. For me, I was mixed race – still am – and gay, and in my classrooms I’d hear the word gay used in a really negative way. ‘My homework’s gay’ or ‘My Xbox was gay last night’. But for the one kid in that class who wasn’t sure of themselves and wasn’t sure if they can talk about their true selves, that’s really damaging.

The old school teachers I used to have, weren’t able to broach these subjects, but we’re going into schools now and kids and teachers are championing it, talking about their feelings, talking about LGBT issues, and I think that’s really powerful because when I was at school I was seen to be different, and I didn’t figure out who I was for a long time. But now I see kids helping each other talk about who they are and accept that that thing that makes them different I actually a strength in disguise.

I think because you’re seeing more of that in the mainstream, and the biggest brands in the world are embracing that, so I think things are really positive, and are changing.

Where there could be more room for improvement is in some of the media that the younger generation consume, because we’re only just at the point where the BBC has appointed an LGBT correspondent and we’re not quite seeing enough diversity, and you have the likes of Piers Morgan who aren’t enabling people to see the other side, and what it means to be young.”

ON MYTHS ABOUT BEING A MAN

James McVey: “I’m 25 but up to the age of 12, the idols I looked up to were soldiers. I wanted to be a soldier, soldiers were cool – why were these role models for our generation? Basically, a lot of boys were taught to suppress how you feel. Actually going into the jungle for me was when I truly let go of everything. It’s strange that show, what you see on screen is very different to how you experience it. When you’re with 10 strangers for 3 weeks there’s a lot of soul searching and I realised after that I let all my walls down. I maybe cried twice in my life before that but I cried every day for 3 weeks there. It was only after I embraced my emotions that I figured out who I was as a person, and to have that revelation at 25 was big for me. It made me realise the difference between the role models I had and the role models future generations are going to have, which will be more rounded.”

George: “Being in a female dominated environment I was always a crier and throughout my career I’ve cried a lot. People have said, ‘Oh man up, stop being a baby, stop being a girl…” I hear my dad sometimes say that to his kids, ‘stop being a girl’ which is really bad because you’re putting them in a box that you have to be in as a boy.

There’s intelligence and then there’s emotional intelligence, where you can figure out what’s going on inside you. We need to be teaching kids that it’s ok to feel, it’s ok to have emotions and communicate it. And I think that’s what’s missing. Kids don’t really understand what they’re feeling and how to communicate their emotions so it just stays in and it gets suppressed. Then it can come out destructively later in life.”

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP MEN WITH THEIR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES?

George: “My dad left home when I was two and a half, and I felt it hard to talk to him – it wasn’t until he had a motorbike accident and losing my sister Harriet, that it changed. My brothers are seeing my dad now speak openly and honestly about this, and it’s really powerful to see that. He’s teaching them not to be embarrassed about who they are. And it’s sweet for my brothers to see a dad isn’t just at work, he does laundry, cooks, cleans the toilet – he has flourished in the last 2 years.”

James Scroggs: “If a woman’s having a tough time in the office she’ll be surrounded by a group of people, who she maybe doesn’t know very well, but there’ll be a kinship, as they try to solve her issues or whatever she’s going through, whereas if a guy in the workplace is found in tears at his desk the chances are HR will be escorting him from the building.

I think that’s changing fundamentally right now. We’re engaged with lots of big and small businesses who are trying to change that culturally in their business.

For men it’s not just about speaking out and opening up because there’s a lot of men who are resistant to that, and being that kind of emotional person. But having a network of people who are going to surround you and help you with the issues that are going to get you to the point of mental distress and crisis, is absolutely fundamental. Since the mental health revolution, which we’re still in, we’re now in a moment where men are realising that if they send each other a text a couple of times a week, it just gives people a chance to offload. And I think that level of male counsel is really powerful. And palpable at the moment. It’s very real and it wasn’t here a few years ago.”

James McVey: “I’m in a band and have been for 8 years and we were very lucky that our first song went to number two and we sold out our first 4 tours – it was up and up. But then that levelled off for me and I realised I got quite lonely. It sounds bizarre, when I was touring the world with 3 of my best mates – and I was in a position where any thought that it wasn’t amazing was seen as, ‘Oh what’s he on about, he’s a celebrity, everything must be great’ and showing any sign of weakness or that I wasn’t enjoying it wasn’t an option.

Since meeting Kirstie things have changed – we’re now engaged and she’s been there for years for me, and I’m able to share my experiences with someone. Before meeting Kirstie I  was doing all these things with the guys and it was great but I couldn’t say to them, ‘I’m not really enjoying this,’ That was really really tough.

Nothing against the fans but when every day your life is on a screen, and you’re jetlagged, and under constant pressure, being in that position really affected me.

I grew up quite a shy boy who was catapulted into this world of The Vamps, which I’m eternally grateful for, but we went from a small town in Dorset to selling out The 02. You can’t predict how it feels until you’re there and obviously it’s really amazing, but having someone there when you are struggling like Kirstie really helped.

A lot of us guys suppress how we’re feeling and even a slight bit of unloading is really helpful. I nearly left the band a couple of years ago. I’d been hiding my emotions for ages and it took a step to get through it, which was Kirstie saying, speak to the boys, speak to Brad the singer about it. I was scared to say anything to him, but I think opening the door to other people really helped me as a man. To succeed in that and embrace that it’s fine to feel a bit shit sometimes, and knowing I have that support network around me is really really important. Kirstie has a group chat where she’s talking to her mates every day but most men don’t have that. I’m not saying we should have that, but it’s good to every now and then have a chat with your mate and ask how they’re doing…A lot of us guys are scared to fail, and having someone there to talk you through it so important.”

Poorna: “From my experiences of trying to help the men in my life, especially my late husband, there is a point at which you can’t help them because that is their own relationship with how quickly or easily they can access their own emotions – however it’s just about being there and a lack of judgment and just being the person who they can talk to about their stuff. As a woman I would love to say I could come up with the perfect response that would emancipate a man from the shackles that are holding him back, but that’s not how it works. I’ve been brought up with the same stuff, and I’ve learned to hard way that you have to just go out for dinner or a drink, put the flag up and say I’m here if you want to talk.  They may not take you up on that straight away, but they might further down the line.”

James Scroggs: “I’m a massive believer in active listening. Which isn’t saying much but is about providing a space for someone to start unloading. The other thing is the average person in distress doesn’t need sympathy they need empathy. Empathy is a practical thing where you help them or put them with people who can help them. Particularly with men, you need to deconstruct it. We have a motto at CALM, which is that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Because the average man gets to a point where there’s no solution, and actually suicide for a certain type of man feels deeply rational. Yet if you can deconstruct some of the rational problems that have got them to that point, it all goes away quite quickly. And so I think active listening, rationality and showing empathy are really important.”

The Festival of New Masculinity is running throughout February and March.

#the vamps bradley simpson #connor ball #bradley simpson #brad simpson #james mcvey #tristan evans #the vamps band #the vamps brad #the vamps connor #the vamps james #the vamps tristan #the vamps tris #the vamps con #the vamps james mcvey #the vamps bradley

[looselucy]

To War - Dunkirk / Alex

Part 3 of 4

- We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. - Evelyn ran towards the train station, her hair loose and falling messily over her shoulders, and she could see other people rushing in the same direction. She could see anxious parents hoping to see their sons, wives gripping the hands of young children as they marched towards the station.

The little information they had received, was that some men were returning home, and everyone was desperate for it to be their loved ones. She practically crashed against the fence, unable to slow herself down beforehand, arriving just in time to see the train doors opening, and men pouring onto the platform. She was trying to catch her breath as she watched them all sulk towards the indoor part of the station, her eyes hysterically scanning over each face. “There’s so few of them.” She gasped, turning briefly to address the woman by her side. “Why is there so few of them?” “They’ve come from Dunkirk.” The nervous woman answered. Suddenly, it was like she couldn’t breathe at all, looking back out to the boys as they slowly made their way home. She thought that she would see smiles. She thought she would be able to see how happy they all were to be home, but they all seemed so sad. Defeated. Only a few of the men darted to the side to greet their loved ones, the rest keeping their heads down and just going inside, ushered by a man who looked as though he held some authority. Evelyn watched with wistful eyes as the young men hugged their families over the gates that held them apart, clearly glad to be home but still looking totally distraught. By what had happened. By what they’d seen. By everything. She watched wistfully as the woman she’d just spoken to clutched her son’s cheeks, tears in both their eyes, and she couldn’t help but smile. There was something so heartbreakingly beautiful about that tender, and totally silent moment they were sharing. Slowly, she took her eyes back to the train, seeing that there were only a few men left onboard. “C’mon, Alex.” She whispered encouragingly. “Please, please, please be home. Please.” She was losing hope. With each miserable man that stepped off the train, she was losing hope. This wasn’t the first time a train full of men had come back, each from different locations, wherever the whispers of war had called them, and each time Evelyn had showed her face at the station hoping that he’d be one of them. But thus far, no luck. She kept telling herself in her mind over and over again that there had been no flowers. His mother hadn’t received a telegram and there had been no damn flowers. Even if he didn’t get off this train, he was alive and she knew that. Deep down, she knew that. But there were these swirling doubts that she couldn’t silence. The thought that a telegram could be on its way. Or maybe it had gotten lost somewhere. Or maybe he was badly hurt and she just didn’t know. All she could say to herself as comfort, was that there were no flowers outside his home, but it wasn’t enough. It was only a split second before she lost all hope, that she spotted him, his head down, covered in what appeared to be dirt, looking just as lifeless and shattered as the rest of them. Her heart was thundering against her chest, half convinced that the image of the boy she loved was just an illusion; her aching mind playing tricks on her and projecting this image of him just to soothe her soul somewhat. But he was real. And he was home. He was practically kicking the stone beneath his feet as he walked towards the station, seeming just as, if not more, down than the others. But he was there and he was real and he was alive and he was home and Evelyn’s heart had bunched up so tightly in her throat, she couldn’t pluck up the stamina to speak quite as soon as she’d hoped. She attempted once, weak and fragile and broken, and then finally barked his name loud enough. “Alex!” Without stopping moving, he turned his head, catching a glimpse of her, an unreadable emotion jammed onto his hurt features, and before she could even smile at him, he dropped his head, and just walked into the station. She felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. He had merely looked at her, and then dropped his head again. No smile. Not even a nod of acknowledgement. There was nothing. Her heart fell from her throat with a thud, crashing back into its original place, cracking on impact. For the first time in years, he’d looked at her like he didn’t even know her. What she was feeling in that moment, stood there, completely alone, was the total opposite of how she thought she would feel if he was to ever get off one of those trains. It was agonizing. - We shall never surrender… - “He’s a coward.” Joyce spoke with an eyeroll as they worked. Evelyn had just shared the story of what had happened the day previous at the train station. The way that Alex barely acknowledged her. She had considered waiting for him outside the station, but after such a cold reception from him, she hadn’t wanted to put herself through even more pain. She’d half expected him to appear in the middle of the night; to throw stones at her window and request her time once more. But he never had. She wanted to tell the tale because she knew it would feel like a weight from her shoulders, spreading her sorrow evenly with the women who worked beside her in the factory, and yet even though she was choosing to share the story, she felt a need to defend him. “He’s not a coward.” She mumbled, shaking her head. “He’s just… never been good at processing… how he feels.” “That’s not an excuse!” Mary joined in. “It’s not.” Joyce agreed. “Before he left, he told you he loved you, Eve. He can’t… finally come home, and act like you don’t exist.” “He’d just gotten off the train, he was probably-” “You’re around some extremely headstrong women, Evelyn.” Mary chuckled. “There’s no use trying to change our mind on him quite yet.” Mary was much older than the rest of the girls in that certain section of the factory, but she’d bonded with all of them very easily. Evelyn viewed her as a wise woman, someone who she could go to and seek advice. She was incredibly headstrong. She had told the girls a few months earlier, that she’d learnt her husband was having an affair a few years ago, and she kicked him out without a second thought. It was practically unheard of, that a woman would be so bold and do that. He was the sole breadwinner that provided for their family, but she didn’t care. She had forced him out and she had found work and she had survived, happily, without him. Evelyn admired Mary, and would listen to her words of advice. “He’ll come to me when he’s ready.” She sighed. “When the time is right.” Most of the girls surrounding her nodded, except Mary, who stopped her work for a brief moment so she could turn to face her and address the issue properly. “Things shouldn’t always be on his terms, Evelyn.” She began. “His gender means nothing. It gives him no authority. The sooner you learn that, the better. You shouldn’t feel as though you need to wait for him to come to you. You’re a part of this, and you have a right to voice how you’re feeling. Approach him. Do not wait for him. If he really is that bad at handling his feelings, you might be waiting forever.” Evelyn thought back to the night before he left for war. It took that fear, for him to finally admit his feelings, and even so, it had to be at a certain time in a certain place and in a certain way, because Alex planned things meticulously in his mind. He would predict how things should be. She didn’t want to have to wait for fear to strike once more so that he would pluck up the courage and reach out to her. She didn’t want to have to play out a plan that he hadn’t even involved her in. As much as she didn’t want to hurt him or crush expectations, because she knew he didn’t handle that sort of thing well, it had reached the stage where she couldn’t hold back and let him have his way. Her emotions and her future with him was at stake, and she couldn’t wait any longer. “You’re right.” She agreed through a sigh. “I shouldn’t just work on his schedule.” “Go to him.” Joyce encouraged, giggling like they were creating some grand plan. Evelyn nodded, forcing a smile and trying to convince the girls that she was excited and confident about their new plot, but she wasn’t. She was nervous. About every single aspect of it. - In a life and death struggle, we cannot afford to leave our destinies in the hands of failures. - She had planned to go much earlier, really. She had planned to finish work, and eat, and then go to his home and speak things over with him, as calmly as she could. But that hadn’t happened. A few things held her back; the thought of his mother being one of them. As the evening grew older, she could feel an anger bubbling up inside of her, and she didn’t want to go around and yell at the boy whilst his mother was there, experiencing the first full day of her son being home from war. She didn’t want to interrupt that. And of course, her nerves had held her back. She’d never done anything like this before in her whole life, to be so purposefully confrontational and to seek out someone in that way. And she was terrified that he would somehow just ignore her presence again, turn her away and ignore everything that they’d spoken about the evening before he left. She feared he’d grown to regret the things he’d said to her, that he’d gone away and experienced so much and learnt so much and realised he no longer wanted a life with her. She was apprehensive about the whole thing, so it must have been way past midnight by the time she finally worked up the momentum to go and see him. She built up the confidence on the short journey, and went from tiptoeing through those familiar streets, to storming through them, fire erupting beneath her heel with each heated march. She was finally allowing herself to feel angry. His home was a little out of the centre of the village, a small bungalow set back upon a large bed of grass, standing lonely and dark. It had always looked slightly out of place compared to the other cottages that were nearby, but completely at home where it was. It blended with the nature around it, weeds climbing and clutching at the roots of his home, ivy climbing proud and unevenly across the front. It was unkept, really, and that was why it looked so idyllic in its location. Evelyn took a moment to stare at it, before she began her approach. She knew which one his bedroom was, so she went to the window, darting down the right hand side of the house and extending her arm upwards so she could knock aggressively against the weak glass. She must have only left it five seconds before she was knocking again. It wasn’t long after that he appeared, ripping the curtains back, eyes tired and half shut, body bare, glaring from the dark room down to her. She tried not to weaken at that sight alone, his broad frame and scruffy hair, his weary eyes. She ticked her head to the side, summoning him to meet her at the front of the house, and she began her venture there before she could even acknowledge if he was going to grant her request. She stood on the gravel footpath that lead to his front door, a few feet away from the door, arms held behind her back waiting for him to appear, which he soon did. He hadn’t dressed himself, rubbing over his eyes and just wearing some baggy, knee length drawers; the only thing covering his frame. He woke himself as much as possible before he spoke. “Eve-” “If you’ve changed your mind, and if you don’t want a future with me anymore, I have a right to know.” “What?” “But you cannot just… ignore me. Turn your head away from me like you don’t even know me. Once again, Alex, it seems you struggle to take into consideration my feelings. You’re acting like a child, and being selfish, again. Well I won’t stand for it anymore. I have a right to know what’s going on here, and I deserve a bit of recognition from you. You hurt me yesterday.” “I never want to hurt you.” “Then stop doing it. How did you think I would feel?” He took a step further outdoors, closing the door behind himself, because Evelyn’s voice was gradually getting louder as she became more frustrated. “I… I don’t know. I was-” “You hurt me yesterday.” She reiterated. “You looked right through me. My heart has been aching enough. I have missed you so terribly, and worried about you every single day. To see you get home and… and glance at me like I was a stranger when I’ve done nothing but think of you. Why did you do that?” With his head low, he looked to her, words failing him, his jaw clenching and his temples pulsing. It didn’t even look like he was struggling to find the right words, really, more like he genuinely didn’t have anything to say to her. She waited, but got nothing from him. “I deserve more than a vacant stare.” She fumed. “I deserve the love you promised you would give me before you left.” “And that’s all I want to give you.” He finally answered, quiet but clear. “Then why don’t you act like it?” And then just like that, he was back to being quiet, still staring at her and becoming breathless at the sight of her moving backwards, but saying nothing at all. She didn’t doubt for a second that he was struggling. She didn’t doubt that his months away had been treacherous and difficult and maybe he didn’t deserve her angry words fully. But this wasn’t about what he deserved, it was about what she deserved. She shook her head, disappointed by his actions, or lack thereof, once again, and then turned on her heel. “Don’t leave.” He called as she walked away. “If you have nothing to say then nor do I.” She heard his desperate footsteps to follow her, before she felt him tug at her arm, pulling her back around to face him, his cheeks bright red, and she could feel him shaking. “I SAID DON’T LEAVE!” He growled. “GIVE ME A GOOD REASON NOT TO!” She seethed right back at him. “I’M FUCKING ASHAMED, EVE!” Her face finally dropped, eyes wide as she gazed up to him, their faces only inches apart. “LOOK AT ME! I’M HOME AND I HAVE… NOTHING TO SHOW FOR WHAT I’VE JUST BEEN THROUGH! We… We lost!” “You didn’t lose. You’re home! You’re alive!” “That’s not enough!” He shrieked. “Evelyn, you don’t understand what it was like out there! It’s not just… the things I saw and what happened, it’s… some of the things that I did. Who I… was, and how I acted… I couldn’t… I couldn’t face you because a part of me feels like I’m not the person you remember anymore. I’m so ashamed of what happened there, and… I’m still trying to process things and-” He dropped his head, throat bulbous, and he was crying. She’d never seen him like that before. She knew him, through and through. She’d spoken to him and shared with him about trying times, and yet she’d never seen him cry. It had never been in his nature. He’d been the man of the house basically his entire life, and he’d taken the role seriously. He was stronger than he realised. So she was in a state of shock, seeing him that way. Seeing him just break, and be so vulnerable. Seeing the way he rushed to wipe those tears away, and how he was still trying to deny his sorrow. He was hurting. “I thought about you all the time.” He continued, looking back into her eyes, and she tried to see past his tears and just look right back. “I so wanted to… come home, and be with you, but then actually seeing you… I feel like I let everyone down. I feel like I let myself down and I let you down and… I don’t know how to deal with this. I saw you and… I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t… I thought you would be disappointed in me.” “Why would I ever feel that way?” She cried, reaching upwards and grasping at his cheek. “How can you not feel that way?” “I don’t care, Alex! I just wanted you home! And now you are and we can… do what we planned and we can-” “The wars not over, Eve.” He shook his head, tears now making their calm journey down his cheeks, warm as they curved over Evelyn’s gentle touch. “We only have so long before��� I’m called out again. I’m not home forever.” “But you’re home for now! And I don’t want to lose this opportunity whilst it’s here. Please…” He nodded, his tears falling a little quicker, his heart aching. He could barely remember the confidence he had before he left, the strange sense of excitement over fighting for his country and proving himself. It seemed so unrecognizable now. So foreign and naive and stupid. He sobbed a little harder before he managed to speak. “I missed you so much.” He blubbered. “Sometimes… it was like I could see you there, and…” She moved her hand to feel through his short hair, pushing him forward somewhat so that his forehead met hers, breathing him in, her anger completely annihilated and replaced by this utter need to care for him, to soothe him as much as she could. Hesitantly, he moved his lips forward, the pink flesh soon landing against hers, tears still falling from his bloodshot eyes as he placed his trembling hands upon her neck, and kissed her fully. He'd had such a brief and beautiful taste of her before he left, and he’d forgotten the feeling her lips introduced to his entire body. And it had augmented, thanks to his experiences on the beaches of Dunkirk. The feeling was now more extreme, frightening but calming, elusive but overwhelming. “I missed you.” He spoke desperately to her mouth. “I love you.” He became lost in her, which was exactly what he wanted. That kiss was the very first thing that took him away from battle, and suddenly all that existed was her, and him, and the gorgeous feelings that vacillated down his spine and caused his heart to thunder. His hands searched down the girl he loved, soon gripping at her waist and hoisting her body upwards. She hovered that way briefly, before wrapping her legs around his waist, hands gripping onto his hair, moaning lightly against his tongue. The wind picked up, but neither of them noticed. It moved around them, tangling through their hair and stroking over their skin, but the gales were barely acknowledged by the two of them. Because they finally had each other, and for the first time in their lives, and for a few brief moments, there was absolutely nothing else. - I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. - The bedsheets were light upon their naked bodies, Evelyn’s hand resting upon Alex’s chest as she lay at his side, gazing to him in wonder as he stared up to the ceiling. He had one hand wedged beneath his head and pillow, the other down at his side; his fingers stroking over her bare stomach and continuously creating shudders and shakes that made her feel sick at the same time as feeling perfect. She looked over their heads briefly before gazing at him once again. “Sun’s coming up.” She whispered. “I should probably go soon.” “Stay a little while longer.” He turned his head to her. “I don’t really want this night to end.” “I don’t either.” She smiled. “That was perfect. Thank you.” “I don’t know why I’m asking this, because I’m not sure I want to hear the answer…” He smiled. “But… am I your first?” She nodded shyly, her cheeks the brightest shade of pink that he had ever seen, his smile growing even more. “Am I yours?” She returned. “You are.” He cooed. “I always… sort of wanted to wait until I was married, but… if it’s going to be anyone, it’s going to be you.” “If?” He turned on his side, reaching his hand upwards and stroking his thumb beneath her eye, and when he stared at her like that she felt totally naked, in different ways to how she actually was. He saw her exactly how she was, like he could search within her soul and bury himself there. “What if I don’t come home next time?” He mumbled. “I went through… so much out there, and that was… me getting lucky! I’m scared that… the next time I get called out… that might be it.” The deluded assurance that Alex had before Dunkirk was nowhere to be seen. All that was left, was a frightened young boy who felt as though death was looming over his shoulder, its breath fluttering the hairs at the back of his neck and causing his skin to prick upwards. Everything had changed. Evelyn had found it hard to stomach his confidence before he left, but this was even worse. She was lost for words. “I’m gunna keep fighting,” He tried to reassure. “And I’m gunna do everything I can to… get home to you, and… marry you. Give you the future you deserve.” “You have to keep fighting.” She stroked her thumb across his bottom lip. “You have to do what you need to do to get home.” “I’m just… scared. I’m so scared.” She nodded, understanding his fear, and there was no point disputing it or trying to convince him that everything would be okay, because neither of them had a definite answer. Neither of them felt confident about him leaving. They didn’t even know how long the war would last. It could go on for years. “How long do you think you’ll be home for?” “Maybe a few weeks. I’m not sure. But we’ll make the most of it.” “Don’t turn away from me again, please. I know you’re scared, but-” “I won’t. M’yours now, until the second I leave. I promise.” He leaned inwards and kissed her again, cupping her jaw and moving his lips with hers. Alex felt amazing being back with her. He hadn’t known how to process seeing her again when he got off that train, but he was so thankful she’d appeared at his window and forced him to face her. He felt so broken being home, so beaten and low, and it turned out she was the only thing that could help him to feel better. She made being home feel like a good thing, rather than a defeat. His wide smile interrupted their tender moment, breaking their kiss apart delightfully, and she giggled appreciatively. “I missed you.” Evelyn told him sweetly. “I missed you so much.” He hushed, unable to diminish him smile. “S’been strange round here without you.” She told him, nuzzling her nose against his. “Not… It’s not really felt like home.” “Has Richard been home?” He queried. A part of Evelyn had just predicted that they’d have been through the war together, in the way that Richard and Alex had been through everything together. She distanced from him a little, struggling to grip at the implications of his question. “What?” She trembled. “I dunno where he was sent.” Alex continued, unaware. “I was wondering if he’s had any time home yet. Is he home now?” There was a small part of him that figured out what she was going to say before she managed to say it. He could see it, watch the words tremble upon her lips before they formed into coherent noises. He heard the shattering sound of the news before it was broken to him. He knew. “Alex…” She stroked her fingers affectionately down the side of his neck. “Ri… Richard is dead.” His brows creased to the centre, and all he could do in that moment was reject the information she’d given him. His automatic reaction was to fight the news, convince himself that she was lying. He had worried about Richard, because he was not the type who could ever be prepared for war. The only reason he’d volunteered, was so that he was at Alex’s side, supporting his best friend as he tried to do his late father, and his country proud. That was the only reason he’d put his name forward, and the simple fact that he’d be called to fight regardless. Alex had thought he was ready for war, until he was experiencing it. Richard had always known that he wasn’t. “No.” He rejected. “Eve, no.” “I’m sorry.” She moved closer, so that her lips grazed his. “I’m so sorry, Alex, but… it’s true, he died, I’m sorry!” “But… I would… He didn’t… He can’t be-” It was only when he saw tears rolling down her cheeks that he found himself believing it. He could see how much it was hurting her, having to tell him, and that was how he grew to accept that he’d lost his oldest friend. It pained him, that he had to learn that way. He had been completely and blissfully unaware of the death until that very moment. He should have known. He should have been one of the first to know. For a moment, before he could be upset, he was merely angry. He hated the fucking war. He hated everything that it had brought, other than it being the final force that had placed him in the arms of the girl he loved. “They lay flowers outside his house.” She whispered. “It was beautiful, Alex. We said goodbye in the only way we could.” “Flowers?” He questioned, trying to restrain the tears in his eyes. “It’s something we do.” She sighed, her fingers tangling in his hair. “When we hear about deaths… everyone around the village will lay flowers outside their homes. I… I walked the long way to work every day… just so I could… make sure there were no flowers here.” He stared at her grief-stricken face, and all he knew was that he wanted to make sure she never had to walk past and see flowers outside his home. He would fight with everything he had left in him, to ensure that his house would remain bare, and he wouldn’t have to break her heart in such fashion. He was scared and unsure about returning to his duties, undoubtedly lacking faith, but he would do everything within his immediate power to stay alive, and get home. He knew that beforehand; though doubts had drowned him and pulled his assurance to the depths of the ocean, he had always known he would fight to get back to her. But with the mental image in his mind, of Evelyn walking to work one day and seeing those flowers marking his death, those susceptible wishes were stimulated further. He couldn’t put her through that. “We’ve lost so many people.” She whispered. “We can’t lose each other.” He returned. “I can’t let that happen.” She snuggled further into his snare, ignoring the morning that got brighter with each passing second, aware that she’d have to sneak from his home before his mother and her father greeted the new day, and for a while, they simply pretended that their existence was theirs. They needn’t fear the outside world and the danger it flourished with patriotic pride. They took that feeling that appeared when they were together, and forced themselves to focus on nothing else. They continued that way, for only a fortnight. Two short, idyllic weeks, where they loved one another freely. There would be the occasional moment where the two of them forgot about the war completely, but those moments never lasted. They were always brief, but blissful, beautiful. There were times where Alex was lucky enough to feel like a young boy again, flirting innocently with Eve in her father’s shop, watching her blush and kissing the back of her hand. They spent most evenings together down by the river, where he always managed to feel calm and safe. They made love to one another, sneaking from one house to the next in the middle of the night, and her kiss was forever coaxing and beautiful, a blessing upon his pink lips. Those two weeks, were everything he had ever wanted, and everything he hoped for in his future. But then once again, he had to return to the train that took him back to the terror and turmoil of combat. He had finally been able to kiss her over the fence at the station, holding onto the back of her neck and praying that he wouldn’t have to leave, that some kind of announcement would made in that very second his skin began to slip from hers. But there were battles to be fought in the Middle East, and it was his duty to fight them. He whispered that he loved her one final time, knowing that the only thing stopping her from returning those words of love were the tears the journeyed down her cheeks and forced her throat to knot, and he finally found the strength to distance from her. Reluctantly, and with tears in his eyes, he boarded the train.

#FINALLY #I'm going to the cinema now #but if you read and enjoy #I'd love to know!!!! #To War #TW3 #Harry Styles #Dunkirk #Dunkirk fic #1dff

[celticnoise]

TOMMY BURNS passed away on this date 12 years ago at the all-too-young age of 51.

CQN today publish the entire chapter of Davie Hay’s tribute to his fellow-Celtic legend which appeared in his autobiography, ‘The Quiet Assassin’, co-authored by Alex Gordon, which was published in 2009.

Hay, former Celtic manager, player, scout and now a Club Ambassador, was a close friend of the Hoops icon. Here is his touching homage.

PARADISE POSTPONED…Davie Hay lines up with skipper Danny McGrain, keeper Pat Bonner and playmaker Tommy Burns before the dramatic 2-1 Scottish Cup Final win over Dundee United at Hampden in 1985.

TOMMY BURNS approached me at St.Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Clarkston and said in a matter-of-fact manner, ‘The cancer’s back.’

There was no preamble, no warning of the information he was about impart. To passers-by, we could have been two former Celtic managers discussing the previous day’s game. How do you react to such shattering news? Tommy, of course, had already been diagnosed with the awful disease and it appeared it had gone into remission.

Now, after a chance meeting between us, Tommy had told me the news I didn’t want to hear. Sadly, one of our last meetings was at St.Cadoc’s RC Church in Newton Mearns when we were in attendance for the christening of our grandchildren, Louis and Cole.

When I looked at Tommy I saw before me an extremely courageous human being whose religion had carried him through so many obstacles in the past. Sadly, on 15 May 2008, after a brave battle, Tommy Burns succumbed to the illness. He was taken from us at the age of only fifty-one. He had so much more to contribute to life. Firstly, as a family man, a loving husband to Rosemary, a doting father to Emma, Jenna, Jonathan and Michael and a man who would have been a caring grandfather to Cole. Secondly, to all things Celtic, the club he truly loved. And, thirdly, to all of us as an inspiration.

  HEAD MASTER…Tommy Burns nods in the opener in the rousing 5-0 triumph over Sporting Lisbon in 1983.

I liked Tommy a lot and it was a privilege to get to know him so well. He was a decent man and did things with a lot of style and panache. Just look at the way he played. Just recall how Celtic performed when he was manager. Everything was done with a flourish. What about that left foot? He could hit targets from all angles and ranges and it was evident even from a very early age that Tommy Burns was going to be a bit special.

I can tell you he was a 100 per cent professional when I was his Celtic manager. He had a temper, too, I seem to recall. If he didn’t agree with you, he said so. And, like a man, he said it to your face. I’ve already talked in a previous chapter about taking him off during the  1985 Scottish Cup Final while we were losing 1-0 to Dundee United. He didn’t agree with that decision and was swift to let me know as he walked past me to the substitutes’ bench.

But he was the first to give me a hug when that final whistle went and we had won 2-1. That was so typical of the man. Tommy had such a lovely demeanour that he made everyone in his company totally relaxed. He had a good sense of humour and possessed a sharp wit, that’s for sure. For me, Tommy always epitomised the spirit of Celtic and I count him among my blessings.

I know he rated our 5-0 UEFA Cup triumph over Sporting Lisbon in November 1983 as his favourite European night and I have to say it is one of mine, too. Tommy gave me a lot of credit afterwards for psyching up the team before kick-off. We were trailing 2-0, of course, and I was emphasising the urgent requirement of an early goal. Actually, I didn’t have to exactly work overtime getting the players geared up for this one. With guys such as Tommy Burns around and the determination he possessed, words were often redundant.

He and the rest of the players were ready to fight their corner and I remember that being a fabulous evening of entertainment and excellent goals – one a rare header from Tommy for our first. At the end of an unforgettable and thoroughly enjoyable experience I complimented Tommy on his display. He shrugged and said: “‘I just did my bit.” You could say he was quite an unassuming kind of guy. He loved the European stage and his skills were tailor-made for this level.

It is so unfair that Celtic were not more successful than they were during his reign as boss. His classy play deserved success, but he came up against a Rangers team that was on a roll. Look at season 19995/96, for instance. Celtic lost only three domestic games – all to Rangers – and it was enough to scupper them in three competitions.

ON THE BALL…Tommy Burns in action in the 2-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Dundee United in 1985. Ralph Milne looks impressed.

That’s unbelievably cruel. Celtic went down in the first Old Firm league encounter at Parkhead on 30 September after dominating the match for forty-four minutes in the opening half. Then Rangers full-back Alec Cleland, a guy who scored as often as we witness Haley’s Comet, went upfield, caught the defence unawares and headed past Gordon Marshall.

  The second-half saw a typically determined Burns outfit throw everything at their rivals. What happened? Paul Gascoigne broke away and netted the second. It finished 2-0. The other three Glasgow derbies ended in draws, but I’m sure even Tommy might not have minded dropping a couple of points after the exhausting and exhilarating 3-3 draw at Ibrox on 19 November.

That was a Tommy Burns-type of game. It encapsulated everything he liked in football; entertaining, attacking, daring play from both sides. And there was a goal from Andreas Thom that will live forever in the memory banks of anyone lucky enough to see it. The German dynamo, another entrancing talent brought to the club by Tommy, cut it from the left and drilled an emphatic effort from outside the box past the helpless Andy Goram. At the end of the campaign, though, the league title was back in Govan and Celtic, after losing one game in thirty-six, were adrift by four points. The champions actually lost two games more, but eleven draws counted against Celtic.

The League Cup draw saw Walter Smith’s men travel across Glasgow for the quarter-final. Andy Goram was in an unbeatable mood and a high-flying save from a Paul McStay drive near the end will remain one of the most breathtaking saves I have ever seen. Celtic played well that Tuesday evening on 19 September in the east end of Glasgow, but a wee chap called Ally McCoist was to have the final say. The defence took their eye off him for a moment as a ball came in from the right and the Rangers striker got up at the far post to nod in the only goal of a tense confrontation.

Interest in the Scottish Cup ended at the semi-final stage, beaten 2-1 by Rangers at Hampden. That man McCoist got the opener when Gordon Marshall couldn’t hold a lot shot and Brian Laudrup, undoubtedly the sort of player Tommy would have welcomed in any of his line-ups, lobbed in the second. Pierre van Hooijdonk pulled one back and a great chance fell to Simon Donnelly minutes from time. Alas, from only yards out, he contrived to put the ball over the bar. Who would have blamed Tommy for giving up football forever there and then!

HOOP HOOP HOORAY…Tommy Burns (extreme right) with his celebrating Celtic team-mates after the 1983 Scottish Cup Final triumph.

Walter Smith, after picking up a league and Cup double, won the Scottish Football Writers’ Manager of the Year award. I will always remember how he opened his acceptance speech. He said: “Thank you for this award and for all of those who voted for me.” There was a brief pause before the Rangers manager continued: “But there is another man who should be here collecting this honour – Tommy Burns.”

It was a fabulous gesture from Walter Smith, a man who realised better than most what Tommy was trying to achieve and how he was going about it at Celtic, Rangers’ fiercest rivals. Walter would also know the pressure that is relentless on an Old Firm boss. The demands are endless.

Walter Smith, along with Ally McCoist, would help carry Tommy Burns’ coffin into St.Mary’s Church, in the Calton district of Glasgow, twelve short years later. Tommy’s ex-Celtic colleagues Pat Bonner, George McCluskey, Peter Grant and Danny McGrain were the other pallbearers, but the presence of the two Ibrox men merely demonstrated that Tommy Burns transcended the Great Divide in Glasgow.

Thousands lined the streets as the cortege made its way from the east end of Glasgow to Linn Cemetery on the south side of the city. There were Celtic, Rangers and all sorts of football fans present to say their last farewells to a great man. There were people there who probably didn’t know the shape of a football, but they had turned out to pay their tributes. You need to be special to achieve that.

Tommy Burns was special.

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#CelticNoise #Celtic #CelticFC #CelticQuickNews

[heyyy-hey-babyyy]

Creep 2, dir. by Patrick Brice (Blumhouse Productions, 2017)

Academic film review below-- May contain spoilers 

Access the trailer here 

Since the prequels’ beginnings in 2014, audiences have long awaited the return of Mark Duplass as Joseph (or Aaron as he is referred to in this film), the unstable protagonist of the Creep franchise. Filmed in the recognizable “found-footage” style, made famous by films such as The Blair Witch Project (1992), Creep 2provides enough tension to rival the prequel. The slasher style of Creep 2is not new, as horror audiences recognize the long stare and sinister smile Duplass perfects. What sets the sequel apart, however, is its important commentary on mental health, with its protagonist recognizing the severity of his situation, and converting a seemingly stable individual to his dangerous lifestyle.

Creep 2 follows Sara (Desiree Akhavan), a video artist with a focus on unusual Craigslist requests, and those who are behind the screen making the request. The movie begins with her answering an online advertisement from Aaron (Mark Duplass) who requests for her to come out to his remote house to video him for the day. Fans of the original film recognize this request, and go along for the ride without question.

Within the first seconds of the film audiences are witness to a similar plot from the prequel: a character appears on the screen, opening a cardboard box which contains the camera (as audiences are looking up as the character is looking down into the box), and a disk which the words “Watch Me” written on it. As the character watches he witnesses something distressing that the audience is not privy too, as all they hear is whistling. There’s a knock at the door and the character leaves to let in Duplass’ character Aaron. As the two talk, Dave, as the audience now knows him as, tells Aaron about the random packages he has received and the video of his house. Dave then leaves the room, which allows Aaron to smirk at the camera and blow it an air kiss, the audiences’ first instance of the plot line of the film. The tension continues to mount as Dave returns and Aaron admits to filming his friend saying, “You are a beautiful person and you deserve that… but I don’t know if I can do this anymore”, before graphically killing Dave. Aaron is silent for awhile before whispering, “what’s happening to me?”. After the credit roll we are introduced to Sara, star, writer, and director of the show Encountersthat she describes as “the show where I look behind the strange world of personal ads to try to uncover the humanity within”. She is frustrated with the amount of views she received on her latest video and the movie continues with her searching the Internet for the perfect personal ad. We happen upon Sara during her closing episode of Encounters, where she hopes to bring out the best in some “weridos”, when she finds an ad “looking for a videographer” in which the advertiser is looking for someone to “…go deep. Together”. She follows up with the ad poster, and agrees to meet and drives to his remote location.  

Upon meeting Sara, after a very real interaction where the two hug and enjoy a smoothie, Aaron casually confesses to her that he is in fact a serial killer with a strong killing streak—however, he further confesses to losing the taste for it recently. If Sarah films him as he truly is, he promises to not harm her, but make her witness to his lifestyle. Sara is thrilled, as she has truly found her unstable requester that will give her show the online following that she desires. While interviewing Aaron, he states that he considers himself to be a “murderer” as he does not like the nomenclatural of “serial killer”, but the numbers classify him as such. Aaron’s insouciant approach to being a murderer is reminiscent of the discussion surrounding mental health, in that he identifies much like someone would identify as depressed or having anxiety. In this way, audiences are alienated from what is happening before them. Bertolt Brecht theorized the idea of Verfremdungseffekt, which is“…the technique of defamiliarizing a word, an idea, a gesture so as to enable the spectator to see or hear it afresh”. [1]This distancing effect forces the audience to become a critical viewer of whatever text is being preformed before them. Verfremdungseffektcan also be seen as having a purpose of which, “…to denaturalize and defamiliarize what ideology makes seem normal, acceptable, inescapable” (79). Audiences are made to be un-familiar by what is happening on the screen, text, and stage before them in order to question the ideology of what makes this seem obscure or confusing, as Brecht theorizes. In this way Creep 2 makes a powerful decision, allowing audiences to recognize the moves Aaron is making, but also further questioning why it isn’t normal for him to be talking about murder so carefree.

As the film continues, Sara begins to see Aaron as unstable when his plans for the documentary begin to fall apart, but also develops a connection to him, perhaps in response to Aaron freely opening up to her. This connection comes to a head, in a pivotal scene, where Sara finds Aaron in a hot tub, after he has shut himself downstairs out of frustration. She begins to push him to speak to her, and Aaron tells an unsettling story about his first murder. They have an intimate moment after, where Sara massages Aaron, and after, he tells the audience (through the camera) that he is having “feelings” for her that he never thought he would feel again, while the camera focuses on a large kitchen knife. Aaron then follows Sara to the shower where she is hiding in the corner to successfully scare him. They commence an interesting game of hide and seek and Aaron confesses to Sara that he would like to kill her, but they are having too much fun together, so he feels as if he can share his work with her.

Eventually, Aaron admits to Sara that he recognizes what she is doing; buttering him up to get what she wants (as he has seen her show). Sara admits she does not think he is a serial killer and Aaron tells her that the movie he wants to make is actually a “murder film”, where Sara murders him. Sara is hesitant, but does not say no, either from a want to make a unique film, or her sanity is slipping in the presence of Aaron. The film continues with a few odd scenes where Aaron, “plots” his murder, leading to the finale of Aaron confessing he likes Sara and admits to being “not a murderer”, though the audience knows that to not be true.  The movie concludes with Aaron and Sara heading into the woods, where he presents Sara with a locket, as his symbol of love for her. He spins Sara around to face a grave; he presents a knife, and stabs himself, telling Sara they could die like Romeo and Juliet. Instead, Sara turns and runs leaving Aaron. The two take off running and Aaron eventually catches Sara, stabs her and drags her in the grave—The movie concludes with Sara hitting Aaron over the head with a shovel. There is a cut scene that then shows Sara walking through a crowd with the locket still attached to her neck, and someone with a camera following her.

A major strength of Creep 2 is the focus on mental illness. Throughout the film you feel for Aaron, even as you see the horrors of his actions from the previous film. Sara begins to develop feelings for Aaron and audiences witness intimate scenes between the two that waver between honest and raw, and uncomfortable. Another underlying strength is the real-ness audiences’ witness. Opposite of the original, we as the audience see the real “Aaron”. There is no tension surrounding what he is or is not; we know him to be a serial killer. But perhaps more important, his realness allows Sara to engage in some sort of relationship with him which changes her, in an intense commentary on the human experience. Are we able to be manipulated by someone being too real?

As Alex Mclevy aptly states in a review for AVClub[2],“Given a performer who can match him in talent, Duplass has transformed his twisted killer into a flawed and charismatic soul, radiating a quiet desperation that’s far more magnetic this time around. He’s made a monster more intriguing…Not many film series can make that claim” (Mclevy). Creep 2 has done what rare other films have accomplished; made the audience relate to a serial killer. Upon completion of the film, audiences are made more aware of the fragile line between stable and unstable; mentally capable and mentally ill. How then can the horror genre further open our eyes to the truth within society? Creep 2 begins the important conversation that horror critics alike seek the answers to. As Maria H. Loh in her article, “Introduction: Early Modern Horror”, states, “…representations of horror steel us for the experience of horror in real life”[3]. Through Creep 2 we are able to recognize the unstable nature of mental health. And that recognition could be the key to discussing mental health in its entirety. Creep 2 appeals to many audiences in giving them an inside look at the potential for the instability of seemingly “normal” individuals, and provides Creep fans with familiar signposts, including the return of Peach Fuzz the terrifying wolf mask. I applaud the writer and director of Creep 2 for giving audiences a realistic look at mental health, through the eyes of Aaron, the serial killer the audience has empathy for.

[1]Diamond, Elin. “Brechtian Theory/Feminist Theory: Towards a Gestic Feminist Criticism”. Performance Analysis An Introductory Coursebook, edited by Colin Counsell and Laurie Wolf, Routeledge, 2001, 77-85.

[2]Mclevy, Alex. “Creep 2 is Smarter, Funnier, and More Engaging Than the Original”, AV Club, <https://www.avclub.com/creep-2-is-smarter-funnier-and-more-engaging-than-the-1819815646> [accessed 27 March 2018].

[3]Loh, Maria H. “Introduction: Early Modern Horror”, Oxford Art Journal, 2011, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 321-333.

#horror #creep 2 #horror review #horror movies #movie review #indie movies #filmisnotdead #film reviews #academic horror #horror scholars #Netflix #sequel #just as good as the original #grad school